


Tea & Bruises

by OlloVae3



Category: The Agency (TV 2001)
Genre: Action, Action & Romance, Arson, CIA Shenanigans, Canon-Typical Violence, Espionage, F/M, Hacking, Implied/Referenced Torture, KGB, Romance, Russian Mafia, Slow Romance, Spies & Secret Agents, Swearing, The CIA - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 14:44:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17941706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlloVae3/pseuds/OlloVae3
Summary: Lex was everybody’s friend - he was smart, he was funny, and he was awkward. But as hard as he tried getting dates, he earned more rolled eyes and sighs than dinner plans in the end. Until, of course, the new artist arrived at the office of the CIA. He quickly begins to gain a crush on her, and she on him.But what happens to the pair when she’s imprisoned for treason and espionage? Even worse, what happens when she’s stolen away from prison and taken away across the world? Lex and his friends launch an international manhunt to find her, and to find the truth behind her work--and possibly prove her innocent.





	1. Office Meet-Cute, Meet Cute

**Author's Note:**

> Set a few years after the end of the show.
> 
> A HUGE Thanks to HixyStix, who Beta'd for me, and to my Mom for letting me bounce ideas off her incessantly and getting her opinion too many times at too late at night.
> 
> Art done by the amazing holydean on Tumblr!

“Arf! _Arf-arf-_ **_rarf_ **!”

“Oh good gracious- Roxy, could you _please_ shut up? It’s not even seven yet...”

The corgi huffed at her master, perking her ears and tilting her head at him before pawing and nibbling at the hand he’d flung over the side of the bed. She was demanding, seeming to argue with him.

“ _But I want breakfast_ **_now_ ** _! Get up_!”

“Ow!” He retreated his hand back under the sheets when she nipped him. “This is _not_ what I signed up for…”

More incessant barking and pawing finally got him to get up, though he grumbled the whole time. He poked out a messy head of medium-length honey-colored hair; the ends curling all on their own. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, careful not to step on the corgi, and scratched at his side as he walked to the kitchen; tired brown eyes squinting with the burst of sunlight.

Roxy wove around and through his legs unabashedly..

“Yeah, yeah, I’m working on it.” Lex sighed as he padded across the cold tiles. She was kinda cute, despite how annoying she was being.

He ran a hand through his bed-head hair and blinked slowly as he looked for the container of dog food. But Roxy solved the mystery for him by running right over, dancing impatiently on her stubby legs and barking at him again.

“I’m coming. I know I’m slow, that part’s your fault.” A yawn from him and another bark from his corgi as he poured the kibble into her bowl.

“You gotta stop barking.” He wagged a reproachful finger at her as she started to chow down. “You’re part of my cover next month. So, stop annoying the landlord.”

She looked up at him, miffed at the idea of her being that loud, before he turned away to turn on his radio boombox, starting their morning with some Broadway music.

A couple hours later he was dressed for work - wearing his favorite red button up and black slacks as usual - and had eaten some breakfast, along with having finally finished the new _X-Men_ comic he’d gotten. All was set for a nice, normal day. Even petting Roxy goodbye after grabbing his motorcycle jacket and helmet was normal now. Normal was great, normal helped him forget about the idea of entropy.

Once he was outside - plodding down the stairs of the complex and waving to Mrs. Harper, the local sweet senior - and out the gate, he made his way over to his motorcycle. Of course, at that point, the day just _had_ to take a sharp 180-degree turn for the worst.

“The **hell**?!” Snarling, Lex crouched down to take a look at the deep, jagged, grooves in the side of the fuel tank cover. Some drunk idiot had taken a key to it, apparently trying to draw a heart into the paint. Although the lines reaching out from the heart-shape suggested an attempt at something more disgusting.

He tried to dust it off, hoping in vain as the design remained. “Shit… That’s just- just great.” He had to take a deep breath and resolve to get it fixed later - at that point he’d be late to work if he stayed there for much longer and got caught in traffic. With a final gumble, Lex hopped on his chopper and started it, finding some solace in the elegant rumble of the engine. Soon enough he was out of the parking lot and swerving around any cars in his way, revving the engine and speeding away to HQ.

He hoped that the rest of the overcast day would turn out better, at least just a little bit.

“Lex! What’s shakin’?”

The analyst turned to look at whoever was talking and grinned. Agent Stiles, still healing up from the last mission, sauntered over as Lex was getting his tea. The agent still had a bloody bandage on his cheekbone, but the boot on his foot was gone at least.

“My chopper got keyed, so that was a **great** start to my day.” He sipped his mug of tea and raised his eyebrows, with Stiles wincing in sympathy. After, he smiled a little at a happier thought. “Roxy was kinda cute today, despite waking me up at an ungodly hour… I swear, I wouldn’t be surprised if she started actually talking to me at some point.”

Stiles rolled his eyes at that and laughed around his own drink - coffee rather than Lex’s favorite. “You’re always so weird Lex.”

“You’re just jealous I got her for that assignment next month. I know you like her, she _is_ like the Queen’s corgis.”

“Oh do **not** call me British, ya’ wanker.” Stiles slipped into his brogue accent as he made a face Lex just had to laugh at.

“Alright, sit down everybody!” The voice that interrupted them was sharp; impatient to get started.

They did as asked as Deputy Director Quinn called them over to their usual seats for the meeting. Once everyone was attending and settled, he sat down himself and turned the stage over to the first speaker of the day.

Lex didn’t listen too much after that, too used to the routine of the previous meetings of the last week, and absorbed with the possible price tags he’d be seeing for the fixing of his vandalized tank cover, or even the full replacement of it. At least, he didn’t notice until Stiles _and_ Terri both elbowed him in the ribs, waking him from his thoughts with a jolt.

“You alright, Lex?” Nankin asked him with a raised eyebrow, clearly having noticed his previous dazed expression.

He gulped.

“Yesiree, sir!” Lex grinned and shrugged, attempting to seem like he’d just readjusted his seating. He bought it, and Stiles and Terri rolled their eyes when Lex glared at them as soon as everyone else was looking back to Reese.

“As I was saying: we have a new face joining our ranks. She’ll be joining our tech division as a new artist. So, Miss Lowell, expect to finally get more field-work.”

Terri grinned with excitement, a feeling that Lex mimicked. _She?_ There were rarely any positions so big filled with new faces, and the thought of a pretty young lady sitting nearby sounded amazing.

Not that Terri wasn’t pretty, of course, but it was easier to flirt with - and date - someone who wasn’t engaged to the man that’d saved their life. Didn’t make it any easier that Stiles was also a field agent. Lex knew he had no chance at competing with the man, both literally and figuratively, unless hacking suddenly became something hot to do.

The rest of the meeting went by smoothly and quickly, but Lex couldn’t help but feel like it didn’t move fast enough. He was anxious to meet the new member of the department, and even more so he was nervous about how he might mess it all up.

Sure, he was fun, and sure, he was cool. But he didn’t exactly have the best of track records with women, even excluding Olivia. They either didn’t find him very attractive, didn’t share any interests with him, somehow thought him repulsive, or just simply thought him rather boring - having the cover of a greeting card writer wasn’t very intriguing. Or worse, they just thought him ‘too nice’.

But here he was, hoping against everything that maybe this time she’d be into him.

But then he realized he was the last one in the meeting room, and raced out in a panic. Dress shoes squeaked against tile as he ran; zipping down halls to make it to his department, passing by coworkers with just a simple, breathless, “Hi!” Before making it  to his desk without Joshua noticing his late timing.

Lex slid into his rolling chair, grinning as he bumped into Terri and turning his head to look over his shoulder at her.

“Sooooo?... I’m guessing you’re excited for the fresh meat?”

She looked back at him with a slightly annoyed glare, erasing a scratch of pencil from her report caused by the his collision.

“Yes, so please don’t scare her off, will you? I’m already outnumbered in this department, I don’t want to lose the only other artist at this desk.”

“Of course I won’t!- Wait did you say ‘ _this desk_ ’?” Those words nearly made him leap out of his chair.

“Yes. Didn't you listen to **any** of the meeting?”

“Most of it. So she’s sitting here?”

Terri sighed and turned to look at him, expecting him to move for her but instead being met with his overly-excited and smiling mug right in her face. She shoved him back and he only grinned more at having annoyed her as he twisted to face her correctly..

“Yes. And she’ll be sitting between us. But, so help me God, if you annoy her I will switch seats with her and unplug your computer whenever you try and flirt with her. Got it?”

“I got it, I got it… Geez, it’s like you don’t trust me!” He rolled his eyes dramatically and slid back to his desk, finally noticing how far Terri _had_ moved away from him this morning, before getting to work on tapping some phones for a case in Sweden. It was busy work for the most part that week, boring him again. He only looked up from the computer when the door to Joshua’s office closed; a glimpse of pale blonde hair flashing behind it. Terri had to “lightly” punch his arm to bring him back to earth.

Poor Lex was left in a daze, staring at the monitor for a moment or two after that.

 

* * *

  


Anna stared at the door for a few moments after it closed; the moment of silence helping Nankin notice how nervous the new recruit was, smiling kindly to her as he sat down and waved her to the chair in front of his desk. He didn’t notice how her eyes had been trained on a certain person out there, a honey-haired and handsome man catching her gaze and nervous attention.

“So, newbie.”

She blinked at him, quieter and more timid than most other recruits. Usually they’d be talking excitedly, finally free to speak without worrying about their application. Instead, big silver-grey eyes stared back at him with a curious shimmer. Her hands fiddled with her canvas bag as she waited for a question to answer.

“I take it they briefed you?” the tall, wiry, man leaned back in his swivel chair, swinging back and forth.

“Yes, sir! I’ll be making I.D’s and helping with maintaining covers.”

“Good! Got your coffee? Donut? Ready to start?” He sipped at his own mug of slowly chilling coffee, smiling mischievously around it.

“Donuts? There were donuts out there?!” Her eyes finally lost their nervousness, filling with excitement as she twisted her head to look back at the door, then back to him. Her hands clutched at her first-ever cup of office coffee, stuffed full of cream and sugar.

He laughed - holding it in and curling over before it became a snort - before shaking his head. “No. No donuts today.”

Her face fell for a moment before returning to its original nervous state. Nankin frowned as well, vaguely sorry to have teased her now. She looked almost embarrassed to have let herself get so excited, and she was.

Inside, she was kicking herself for getting so overly excited for free food, she was on the thicker side as it was, and she didn’t want to further anyone’s preconceived notions about her.

“Donuts on Thursday though.” He offered with a side of finger-guns, and she smiled brightly, relaxing again.

Damn it, now he’d have to buy those-

-and _share_.

“Alright. Let’s go introduce you and get you over to your desk.”

Anna instantly paled even further, the pink in her cheeks fading. Her smile stuck, though it was instantly turned tense. Nankin saw and chuckled as he stood and led her back to the door.

“Don’t worry, no grade-school ice-breaker questions - unless you want to give everyone ammo for April Fools. I’ll introduce you, you say ‘hi’, and then you get your desk. It’s real easy.”

She nodded, a little less terrified, and already nervous enough with working in such a high-stakes job, let alone such a job in the _CIA_. Mr. Nankin seemed very dad-like though, and she felt a little reassured at his words. So reassured, that she didn’t balk at the open door, and the sudden swarm of faces turned towards her. Anna instead followed her new boss out, standing beside him and observing. She didn’t expect, however, for him to be so loud.

“Alright, children! You’ve all got a new playmate!” He beamed, words carrying without him having to shout them, summoning the last of the unturned faces to look at them.

She didn’t complain, nor did she stand confidently, as she saw the handsome man from earlier watching her with an curious and intense gaze. His brown eyes seemed mischievous, but also kind, and she only barely caught Nankin speaking again.

“This is Anna Sullivan, the new artist we talked about getting for the past few days, so if anyone’s surprised, that’s both your fault and a stupid thing not to pay attention to.”

A few laughs circled the room, before he quieted them all down.

“Now, Anna, say ‘hi’.”

 

* * *

  


Lex was absolutely fascinated; entranced. He swore Terri might punch him at some point to get him to pick up his jaw from the floor.

“Hello…” waved the new girl, Anna. She sounded so shy. _Like a mouse maybe_. He thought to himself. Nankin encouraged the department to say hello back, and Lex happily did so; waving and grinning at the pretty face that dazzled his vision.

Now she wasn’t just a flash of platinum hair, she was beautiful; fascinating. Her reddened face was round and freckled. Her hair was a platinum blonde, pulled back into a long braid, and she had the most amazing eyes. The irises were grey, but hinted of an almost silver shine and a hidden impishness. The hacker was really entertained though, by how short she was. Sure, he wasn’t the tallest man around, but she was _tiny_. She stood at maybe a prayer over five-foot, and-

-Oh shit, right. They were coming over.

He felt heat rising up his neck, spreading over his cheeks and tickling his ears, delighting Terri with the embarrassing sight. Of course, he didn’t get why this girl had him a blushing mess just yet, but he knew for sure that he wasn’t complaining that much.

Nankin strode over, the new girl in tow, and Lex noticed her slowly letting her shoulders relax as everyone else returned to their assignments and let their gazes turn elsewhere.

“Alright, Maestro, Madame. Meet your new friend, Miss Sullivan, play nice and don’t mess with her stuff. I have a feeling she might kill you if you tried.” The thin man gave them all, especially Lex and Anna, a cheshire grin before leaving back to his office. Anna beamed back at her new neighbors and set down her things, blushing pink and hands shaking just the slightest. She was immensely nervous about her first assignment: forging some French passports.

Lex felt a little sorry for her, remembering his days as a greenie, and much to the annoyance of Mrs. Terri Lowell, decided to try joking with her.

“Hey.”

The young woman looked over at him, hands pausing as she set up her space and computer.

“Hi.”

“I see you like coffee?”

She nodded and set down all but said cup of coffee. “Keeps me awake.” He earned a soft smile, though her head tilted with curiosity as to the point of the conversation.

“Yeah, same. Coffee has a hard time in my house, though. It gets _mugged every morning_.”

Terri groaned at him, hiding her face in her hands as Lex beamed over at Anna. He expected a similar reaction from her, a break in the tension with maybe some irritation directed at him, as usual for whenever he tried punny jokes.

He was definitely not expecting for her to snort with laughter, and the proceed to **giggle**.

She had to take a moment before stuttering to him, tears dabbed away on the sleeve of her dark-grey blazer, “That...that, was an amazing pun. Thank you…?” She was still trying to stop giggling as they both set down their drinks.

“Tea’s really more my jam, but I couldn’t pass it up. You can call me Lex. The other artist on your left is Terri.”

Anna waved to the still-frustrated Terri before smiling back at him, the beautiful pink returning to her cheeks. “Thank you, Lex. You’re a sanity-saver.”

“I think Miss Lowell may disagree, but you’re welcome!” He only turned back to his work when she returned to hers, still fascinated. He blindly reached for his tea, already feeling the effects of the lack of caffeine.

She took hers, giddy and excited again, wondering if it was all just the sugar content.

They both realized their mistakes too late, swallowing the sips painfully and trying not to spit their respective mixed-up drinks over their desks. Anna’s face squished back into her neck with a stretched and disgusted frown at the taste of the bitter tea. Lex, on the other hand, shivered before making a confused face, pursing his lips, and swiping at his teeth with his tongue - convinced he’d get a cavity instantly from all the sugar in the coffee. The pair glanced at each other again and laughed out-loud, snickering at the hilarious face each had made when trying to stomach the other’s drink.

“Sorry, I think I accidentally took your leaf-water,” she joked, apple cheeks cute on her rounded face.

“Sorry for accidentally taking your pound of sugar.”

They both were looking at each other stupidly, eyes going doey before Stiles arrived, and broke the silence.

“Hey, you guys see that new decap. cadaver?!”

There was a collective groan from all three in the corner desk.

 

 


	2. Secrets Kept Over Tea

_ Almost a month after the Great Switch: _

“Sooo…”

Anna looked over at Lex as he rolled his chair over, laughing at his antics.

“So what?”

“What are you doing over the long weekend? Labour day, remember?”

“Not much, I think. Just finishing up some art for my portfolio update, maybe I’ll go out to that new bookstore down by my house, but aside from that-” She shrugged as she continued a sketch; drawing a castle sitting on clouds that seemed to real to be just pen.

“Really? No date-night? Don’t tell me you’re single!” He was grinning, teasing and testing the waters.

She shook her head. “I guess I’ll have to be quiet then.” Anna then smiled and returned to her work, quiet as promised.

Lex watched her, processing the information as he rocked himself back and forth in his swivel chair. Brown eyes curiously taking in her soft, cute, face. He froze at that thought; at the realization. A month after meeting her and he still thought she was cute. That was… new.

Usually, if they weren’t dating soon after meeting, Lex would move on. But he hadn’t, he was still fascinated by her, wanting to get to know her and curious about her past - a past she never elaborated on. Hell, he didn’t even know where her parents were from.

Her waving a hand in front of his face startled him, and his clutched his chest as he gasped back to reality. She jumped back too and they watched each other for a beat.

But then she snorted.

The pair laughed, hard, for a few minutes, before Anna could calm down enough to remember what she was originally going to say.

“I forgot; I got you a present! It’s an ‘I-don’t-know-when-your-birthday-is’ but also an ‘I-saw-this-and-knew-you’d-like-it’ present.”

Lex perked up and sat up, instantly filled with his usual energy; adorably curious. “Oh really? Does it have caffeine in it?”

“Yep! Well, sort of.” Anna beamed and pulled something out from her purse, hanging off the back of her chair. It was a tea tin, but on the lid was some beautiful _ Les Misérables _ art, the calligraphic writing detailing how it had apple and apricot, and - of course - caffeine. “I found a tea shop that sells these fun teas by my bookshop, and I saw they had a musicals shelf. Once I saw this one I knew you’d probably like it.”

She hesitated, watching his face with a worried look in her silvery eyes.

“Do you? Like it, I mean.”

Lex grinned after a moment, finally breaking out of his amazed daze. “Are you kidding? You just won the ‘best person ever’ award! Thanks!” He looked like a kid on Christmas, turning the tea-tin around in his hands carefully, looking at all the details and every piece of art on it until a hand slapped on his shoulder and startled him for a second time.

“I thought  _ I _ earned that award.”

Joshua was looking at him with a hilariously exaggerated, and betrayed-looking face; raising one eyebrow right to his receding hairline. Lex just rolled his eyes at his boss.

“Ignore him. Award’s yours, Anna.” Another grin was sent her way before he rolled back to his own desk. It made Anna smile again, happy that he’d liked it so much.

Nankin watched them both, realization dawning on him and making him groan, slumping away to Terri, by the printer as the pair went back to work.

“Miss Lowell-soon-to-be-Stiles, are they-”

“What makes you think he won’t be taking my name?” She didn’t even lift her head, staring at the slow printer. A smirk spread across her face, however.

Joshua huffed at her before continuing. “ _ Sorry, Mrs. Lowell _ . But as I was asking -Terri - are they always like that?” He nodded towards Lex and Anna as they worked quietly.

“Quiet? Because if that’s it, no. Have them checked out.”

“No, I mean- I mean are they always so…” He struggled to describe what he’d been forced to watch a minute ago. He put his hands on his hips and rocked on his feet, thinking.

“Are they always dancing around their feelings? Because they look like a couple of school-kids making heart-eyes at each other and I’m starting to worry for Lex’s health. That kid is starting to stare at something other than a computer.”

That got Terri to look up. Curious, she peered over at them - Lex humming some showtune and Anna smiling at her paper. Terri laughed a little and looked back to Joshua. “Yep, and it’s all your fault for putting her there.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

“Why? Don’t tell me you’re jealous of them…” She got a mischievous grin on her face that made him frown and grumble as he walked away.

As he left, she returned to her waiting, chuckling over the thought of the pair beside her.

But boy did she hope she wouldn’t have to be unplugging Lex’s computer anytime soon.

 

* * *

  
  


_ Two months since the Coffee-Tea Incident: _

Christmas decorations littered the entire CIA headquarters as soon as Halloween was over, with spider webs chucked out in favor of little sparkly gift-boxes. Whether people like it or not, the more festive of them had set about with their christmas-elf tendencies. They’d trung up simple lights over most windows, the front desk, and even some of the offices - if their occupants weren’t too Scrooge-y. They’d also set up a couple small christmas trees and were still working on decorating them and they had even sent out the annual Secret Santa emails already. There were only so many days more until the festive day would be upon them.

Lex, however, was less excited for once, and more exhausted.

He’d returned from his assignment in Sweden only a week ago, and not only was jet lag lagging to leave him, but the mental exhaustion from the stress of keeping himself inconspicuous in his actions, as well as existing enough to not be a suspicious, hermit-like, person setting off red flags, was catching up to him. Spying on possible terrorist cells in the happy-go-lucky source of Ikea - mostly alone - was nerve-wracking, and making sure he wasn’t leaving a single trace behind was even more so.

A  _ constantly  _ yipping corgi didn’t add well to the mix, but Roxy had also kept him sane too, licking his face and insisting on him cheering up or calming down.

However, post a second petrifyingly terrifying flight, and back home on U.S. soil… Lex was feeling drained. He was right back to his usual work, but with half the energy as before. Everyone in the department worried about him, the Joshua even tried to get him to go home and rest, but the hacker just sipped his  _ Le Mis _ tea and carried on.

However, a delivery - from a very special vintage shop in Sweden - one early Tuesday that November sparked him back to life, at least for a while.

Lex snuck over to Anna’s desk, making sure she was off on her lunch break before slipping the gift into her pencil-drawer. He knew his new best friend had needed it soon, and he also knew that she loved surprises, so he hoped it would be just  _ perfect _ . It was just small enough to fit, and he closed it softly before returning to his desk and his work, yawning and wondering just how long he  **could** keep going like this. He was almost done with reports, but there were still so many…

Tired or not though, he continued to plug away at it, waiting for her reaction.

When Anna did return, it was with a frustrated frown. There’d been no cookies left in the lunchroom, and the microwave had crapped out just as soon as it was her turn. Eating cold spaghetti hadn’t brightened her mood. Now, she was also dealing with a chipped coffee mug, and a lack of ink for signatures, both caused by a clumsy new recruit who she just couldn’t really get mad at. They hadn’t meant to, and someone else bumped into them, knocking both over. The short, amicable, young woman had just shooed the poor kid away with a kind smile as she soaked up the ink and caffeine mixture with almost a whole roll of paper towels.

As she sat to retrace the signature she’d been forging, ready to at least prep the thing for when she had the resources for it, her hand brushed against something new. She yelped, understandably; shocked and frightened by the new discovery. Lex looked over at her with concern, as she looked back into the drawer, face shifting from fear to confusion.

Out she pulled a small box, old-paper tan and wrapped with a chocolate ribbon. It was only a smidge bigger than a ring box, and had a gold-inlaid label that she didn’t recognize, the name in something Scandinavian. But, as soon as she opened the box, she squealed; loudly.

A sharp turn of almost everyone’s heads made her shut her mouth instantly after the sound of joy left her mouth. She blushed and squeaked out a ‘sorry’ as she curled in on herself, the redness spreading across her face, even her ears burning as red as beets. It only got worse as her handsome coworker rolled his chair on over with a big, bright, grin.

“What is it?”

She looked over at Lex and slightly relaxed her posture at his curious head tilt. At his question, Anna beamed again.

“A miracle! It’s that ink I just ran out of- It’s even the Old-World, Iron Gall, stuff! I can’t believe someone was able to find this!”

He smirked, knowingly, and she squinted at him, curious about the reason why.

“Do you know who found it? You’re doing that smile again.”

He just shrugged at her, smugly spinning in his chair - if you can do that, and slid back to his desk, humming a song and never giving her a real answer. Though his non-answer made her giddily certain of who had  _ really _ given her the sweet, perfect gift.

Anna was blushing again; flattered and wondering if he really had bought it for her, and also if he really thought about her the same way she did about him. Of course, she wondered if she’d even be allowed to pursue it if they found out.

The thought of him dragged into her life was a tragic one…

 

* * *

  
  


_ Two months post-Christmas madness: _

Lex was **_pumped_ ** _. _

Not only was it the weekend, but his chopper was fixed up and all shiny again.

He ripped out of the parking lot after slamming on his helmet; engine roaring and drawing every eye to him. He loved it, and he loved even more the idea of finally getting to work on the forms to get to keep Roxy. The little fluff-butt had grown on him, worming her way into his heart with her happy face and little stump-tail wiggle.

So, off he drove to his favorite coffee bar, swerving around cars when he could and making it down to the beach in just under his record time. Parking was hell as usual for the dinner rush, but he managed to find a spot near the back under a streetlamp. As soon as he parked and grabbed his backpack, he was sprinting to the front door and screeching on his boots to slow down and not crash through the doors. Music and the mixed smell of teas and coffees wafted out, and he let his body fully relax as he walked in.

The place looked like usual, modern and covered with the aesthetic wood-panelling, a coffee-bar was working away, baristas running around like mice on a mission. The vintage light bulbs lit what the sun didn’t through the large, floor-to-ceiling, glass windows that lined the far back wall.

Remy, Lex’s usual barista and friend, waved him down to his counter, and handed him his usual order, a nice, heavily caffeinated, black tea. Lex laughed at that.

“Am I getting too predictable? Should I start ordering Oolong or something?”

“No caffeine? You’d be able  **drink** that?”

“Hell no, but wouldn’t it be funny for you to see me start snoring on the table?”

“ _ Very funny. _ Also, wanted to let you know, we’ve got a live singer again today, pretty lady I think you might take a liking to. So don’t skip out on me, alright?”

“Alright? I hope you’re not trying to set me up.”

“Me? Never!”

Remy slapped a hand over his heart in mock offence as Lex paid and made his way to his usual stool to work on the adoption paperwork, both laughing. Lex barely even noted the passing of time as he worked, pouring over the forms to make the dog his - official stuff to be sent to the CIA, and also cover forms adopt her according to the fake shelter she was from. He was so involved that he never noticed the musician set up over on the corner stage to his left. He never noticed them tune their guitar, and never noticed the platinum hair until she tapped the mic and introduced herself with none of her usual nervousness or mouse-like quietness.

“Hello, I’m Anna Sullivan, and I’ll be singing  _ Bless the Broken Road  _ for you all today..”

It seemed everyone else was surprised as well, though none could be as surprised as Lex, watching in surprise and amazement as Anna sat on the stool and adjusted her guitar strap. She wasn’t in her usual business attire, the blouse and skirt traded for jean capris and a floral-print peasant shirt, with shimmery ballet shoes covering her fidgeting feet. But Lex’s attention was brought right back to her soft face as soon as she began to sing. Sweet notes echoing across the room.

_ I set out on a narrow way many years ago _

_ Hoping I would find true love along the broken road _

_ But I got lost a time or two _

_ Wiped my brow and kept pushing through _ .

Lex sat in awe, forgetting the paperwork. Sure, he knew that she was an artist, painting and sketching with a skill he knew he’d never possess, but a musician? No, he’d never known about this. Then again, he struggled to remember ever seeing her outside of headquarters… 

_ I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you _

_ That every long lost dream led me to where you are _

_ Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars _

_ Pointing me on my way into your loving arms _

 

_ This much I know is true _

_ That God blessed the broken road _

_ That led me straight to you…  _

She sang her heart out, a siren out of water, and Lex joined the throng that cheered and clapped at the end of the melody. She blushed, but wasn’t an ounce embarrassed, more flattered than anything. She stepped down from the stage, turning off the mic as she went, and mock-curtsied to the audience before walking over to Lex.

“Mind too much if I join you, stranger?”

“Not at all! Sit!” Lex directed her to sit right next to him, and she did; her guitar propped up against the bar. He waited for her as she ordered her usual sugar-filled concoction before speaking again.

“So, an artist, a “writer”-” He wiggled his eyebrows at the reference to her fantastic forgery skills, “- _ And _ a musician. Is there anything the Great Mademoiselle Sullivan can’t do?”

Something flickered across her face before he could catch what it was exactly. She just laughed instead.

“Cooking.”

“Hm?”

She grinned. “I can’t cook for the life of me. Ask me to microwave something, sure! Make a craft out of zip-ties? Can-do! But cook? I’m useless at it.”

“Ah-ha! So the perfect Miss Anna has a single thing she  _ can’t _ do! How shocking!” He laughed with her, “What a revelation!”

He ordered a sandwich before turning to Anna again.

“You want something? My treat.”

“What, like a date?” She leaned on the counter with her elbow, resting her head in her hand.

Lex felt his heart skip a beat. But then he also felt it skip a few more in fear. He couldn’t tell if her smile - so bright and kind - was joking, or genuine. This was the split second where he cursed Stiles for once, for making him doubt he could ever get a girl - playful teasing or not.

“Would you like it to be?” His voice had an uncharacteristic wobble to it.

But her smile back at him, with platinum hair braided over her shoulder making her face glow, caused relief and joy to spread across his chest, and restarted the anxious heart of his.

“Yes… If you don’t mind.”

“I’d love that.”

And so she ordered a sandwich, and so they laughed, and so they talked and talked until it was nearly closing time and they were still chatting about almost everything. She would leave every half-hour to go up and sing again, as she’d been hired to, but as soon as she was back, they returned to their conversation as if they’d never been separated, talk flowing freely. She asked about Roxy and he asked about her talents, and by the end of the night they were ordering cupcakes and giggling over proposed pranks.

But then, the bell above the door rang.

The jingle echoed across the coffee bar with a minor key that made both Lex and Anna sit up a little straighter, skin prickling with an instinct that told them to run. Only one of them knew what it was-

-And only one of them knew that running was never an option; not really.

A tall and pale man, with ice-blue eyes and a perfect, almost young, face, looked around the bar; his casual suit appeared perfectly-tailored and expensive. As soon as he saw Anna and Lex sitting at the bar, he strode over, gait slow and calculated until he reached a stop uncomfortably close to the artist.

“Anna… You worried me, being out so late. It’s time to go home.” He spoke with a posh accent, and his voice was sickeningly sweet. That - combined with a sleazy smile - put Lex even more on edge. Was this her boyfriend? No, too old, but- who then?

“Who are you, exactly?” He squinted in what he hoped looked like honest confusion, but knew was really every single red flag in his head waving in front of his eyes.

Anna was about to answer when the man cut in.

“I’m Vasily Volkov. Anna’s uncle.”

He wrapped an arm around the girl he said was his niece, and though she looked uncomfortable, Anna only smiled and nodded.

He was far too young to be an uncle...

Lex felt every nerve in him light up with the fight or flight response at the situation, preferably fight, but what could he say? She’d been evasive about her family for as long as he’d known her, leaving him guessing that they just weren’t close. This man, however, made him suspicious about everything.

But, again, what would he be able to say that wouldn’t either anger the man who looked like a real-life mafia member, or offend the girl he’d fallen for?

Remy answered for him, walking up behind the pair with his mop in-hand.

“I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll have to leave, she’s hired talent, and we’re not closed just yet.”

Vasily turned slowly to look at him, and Anna hopped off her stool to stand with him.

“She’s coming home. There’s been a… family emergency” He said, voice cold and threatening; a warning. He squeezed her closer with a heavily tattooed hand and Lex hopped off his seat too. “Besides, her parents are worried to death about her. She shouldn’t be out this late.”

Anna paled at the mention of her parents, smiling emptily at Remy and Lex, before leading her ‘uncle’ away.

“I’m sorry, guys, he’s right. I have to go see what’s happened, but I’ll see you guys later!”

That look flashed across her face again.

“Thank you for a wonderful night, Lex!”

She waved as she left and Lex followed after them before running back and grabbing her cupcake; chasing after them with his excuse.

They were nearly about to leave when he made it out to the parking lot, a ghost town in the twilight.

“Wait! Anna, hold on!” She stopped as she was about to climb into the passenger side of the large white van in the corner. The behemoth parked under no lights and near no other cars.

“Yes?” Silver eyes looked scared - for him.

The lights of the van flicked on with the rumbling growl of the engine.

“You forgot your cupcake.” Was all he could pant out as he caught up to her and handed over the half-finished desert, leaning oddly on the mirror for balance. His eyes were wide and worried, clear and suspicious of what had just happened, but she saw a genuine caring look there. He was offering help, but she knew he wouldn’t be able, not just yet.

“Thanks, Lex, this was… this was a great night.” She smiled apologetically and almost reassuringly as she hopped in and closed the door with a loud slam.

Lex slid his hand off the mirror and backed away as they pulled out of the lot, driving away like a bat out of hell.

The hacker, tracker, and computer-smart extraordinaire watched with sickening worry as they disappeared down the beach.

He hoped he’d be able to trace and follow the license, but at least he’d gotten the tracker on the mirror… 

  
  
  



	3. Solve Me If You Can

As soon as Monday rolled back around, Lex was back at his desk, far earlier than usual. He hadn’t slept since he’d gotten home on friday, instead just scouring his laptop for the any odd pings from the van - stopping by a warehouse, or an odd store. However, the tracker went nowhere interesting: a townhouse, and then the subsequent parking lot. Saturday it went to the grocery store - a common chain-brand - and to a bookstore before returning back to the local parking lot. Sunday was just as unalarming. It swung by an art store, a retail, and then back to the house.

So he was now stuck at his work computer, dark circles under his eyes making his them look empty and sunken in; worried out of his mind as to if she was okay, and as to what the hell was that “Vasily” was about. Sure, maybe he _was_ just her uncle; maybe he _was_ just your average asshole. But how uncomfortable he made Anna continued to haunt him. He at least wanted to clear him, make sure he wasn’t any sort of horrible threat. But so far, there was nothing popping up, not even anything to prove he existed - aside from security footage and the occasional credit-card being maxed-out.

“Lex? Is- Is that you?”

Lex turned to look blankly at Terri, and she rushed over, dumping her things on her desk.

“Are you okay? You look half dead!”

“I’m fine…” He yawned, blinking slowly, before turning around again and sipping at his caffeine-filled tea, apparently numb to it now since he knew he wasn’t getting any more awake than he barely was at that moment. The idea of it kicking in was far too distant for his liking at this hour.

“You sure don’t _look_ fine, what, did the wifi at your apartment crap out?”

He managed to muster a laugh at that one.

“No, you’d’ve dealt with me living in a computer cafe like the addict I am.”

“Then what happened?”

Lex stilled, an odd thing for him to do, before setting the tea back down and swinging his chair back around to tilt his head at her; weighing options. He could tell her, he could potentially gain an ally, someone to help him as he searched for anything about Anna’s odd family - or he could risk her thinking that he was being creepy, switching desks and occasionally unplugging his computer in retaliation.

He sighed.

“Something… weird that I’m trying to make sure was just my imagination.”

“Does it involve Anna?”

 _Damn her for being so perceptive_ , was what he thought as he ran his hands over his face.

“Yes- But I’m not stalking her! Promise.”

She squinted a little less at him.

“We accidentally met at that cafe I like. I was doing paperwork, she was the singer for the night, and it ended up turning into a date.” He rubbed at his neck as he explained, still remembering how pretty she’d been - and how quickly she’d been scared by her uncle. “Halfway through dessert, though, some old Russian guy shows up, a full-on creep that just whisked her away from her gig for a ‘family emergency’.

“Boyfriend?”

Terri sat down now, both curious and concerned.

“No. Her _uncle_. Guy practically glued her to his side as soon as he showed up, growled at everybody. I swear Anna went from smiling to empty-looking like-” He snapped his fingers in her face for effect,  “-that.”

“You’re sure she wasn’t just annoyed?”

“Ninety-eight percent sure, but of course, that two percent is just healthy speculation. Besides, does any _good_ uncle of yours drive a creepy white van with blacked out windows and practically not exist in the eyes of the federal government?”

Terri blinked at him as she tried to process his thought dump. “Not- Not as far as I know..”

“Good, I was worried _I_ was the weird one.”

 _Ooh, caffeine high kicking in_ , he thought - the idea sparking just as his brain did.

Terri slid her chair over to his computer, peering to look over his shoulder as he turned back to show her what he had.

“There’s nothing on him, which normally would be nice to hear, but with him-” The hacker shook his head, “This is even more silent than your average nuclear-family, nine-to-five, middle-class man. Not a single ticket, vote, or anything interesting of any sort. People like that are either hiding something, or aimed to crack at some point. This… Vasily Volkov, he looked too laid back to be the last type. He’s officially renting a space for his tool-store, but when I met him, he was wearing nicer clothes than you’d expect a man with that kind of job to be wearing.”

He took a quick breath before continuing. “And now that I’ve been searching for how they’re related, I can’t find anything on _her_ either. Official files are either completely non-existent, or redacted down to just- just… nothing!” he tossed his hands in the air, eyes wide with hours of pent up frustration.

Agent Lowell just sat back, watched, and listened to his caffeine-incited monologue, watching the screen he was scrolling through and clicking around on. She waiting for anything to come up as he went that might help her prove that Lex was just being paranoid about the girl he liked. But the longer he went on, she felt his anxiety rubbing off on her, as well as sharing his realization that neither of them really knew anything about their friend.

That’s how Stiles found them, poring over files before nearly anyone else had gotten to their desks.

He was only there early because he knew Giles would read him the riot act if he missed sending in another report on-time. But now he was regretting all of his life choices as he watched his usually very focussed fiancee scrambling about the two desks and whispering sharply as skinny, nerdy, Lex did the same.

He just watched for a bit before joining them; entertained juuust a little.

“So, are you two proving the existence of the illuminati or what?”

Lex gave him an energy and anxiety-filled stare, “I did that last month, in my free time, so no.”

It was Stiles forced to blink at them and process their exchange this time. Terri turned to see him standing there, getting up and kissing his cheek in greeting and kissing the scar on his palm from that fateful rescue-job of his. He forgot about Lex for a moment and kissed her back, pressing a similarly soft kiss to the scar on her jaw, where he’d ripped off the collar-bomb that nearly killed her just those few years ago…

Paper tapping their joined hands brought them back to reality.

“Check this out: list of extracurriculars she’s taken since junior high. Anything before then is another blank void.” Lex put the file back down and pointed out the list on his screen.

It was a list that left them all… very confused.

She’d taken coding classes, multiple language-learning classes, and then there were others like wilderness survival and forensic science one summer, sharpshooting and hunting the next. It was the same the next year, alongside modelling courses and ballet.

It was a mishmash of things that concerned all three of them.

She was an artist, a forger, and - as far as they knew - a local Virginian.

So why did she learn about poisonous mushrooms at the age of twelve, and then modelling at thirteen?

“Good morning, my subjects!”

The trio snapped to attention, tense and wondering if Joshua had seen their snooping on Anna’s past. However, the wiry man just waltzed right by with his box of Monday Muffins, ignoring their stares and misunderstanding them as watching his weekly gift to the office.

Lex slipped all of the files he’d found on his computer into a hidden folder without even looking.

Terri took the physical ones to her desk, slipping them into her drawers’ secret compartments.

Stiles…

Stiles just tried to act casual and grab his muffin for the day.

 

* * *

  


Anna made it to work later than she usually did, leaving her only two hours to go, and forcing her to try and rush in through the doors. She got reprimanded for running in the parking lot on her way in, though she didn’t entirely register it in any other way than slowing down just the slightest. As soon as she was through the doors, checked in through security, and finally in her department, she was ten minutes late and the muffins were already gone.

She tried her hardest not to cry, stuffing down the extra grief of the day deep into herself, just moving quietly to her desk and apologizing shakily to Mr. Nankin. He just raised an eyebrow in shock - this being the first time ever that she’d been late - before waving it off with a warning.

She was a good kid, and he wouldn’t write her up unless she really pushed the limits.

The work day had begun. So, Anna pulled up her current project on her monitor: a series of “family” photos in need of retouching before being sent to print, and started transferring her files over.

She didn’t even notice Lex watching her with concern until he rolled over and peered over her shoulder.

“Whatcha up to, Mademoiselle Sullivan?”

She leapt three feet, not expecting him and nerves already frayed. Anna swung her chair around before sighing in relief at seeing only Lex.

“Having a heart attack, if you keep that up.” She muttered, before turning back to her work, fixing the lighting in a photo of a boy and his dog; very American.

“Daww… I’m flattered you think I’m that _heart-stoppingly_ handsome.”

Anna just ‘hmm’ed at him and they retreated into a silence that she could tell worried him. She had never been this unresponsive, ever. She always at least blushed at him, but right then she was in no mood for it; silent as the grave.

God, she hoped he didn’t see the mark on her arm with as long as he stared at her in worry.

“Did you like the cupcake?”

Silver eyes flickered to his faint reflection in the computer screen.

“Yes. I did like the cupcake.” Her voice was soft, thankful, and he made her smile a little before it fell again into a cold and focused look.

Whiskey-brown irises flicked from her sleeve to her face and she instinctively tugged the sweater down, ignoring how itchy the thing was.

“Hey, Anna-...”

“Yes?”

She looked right back at him, eyes empty again, daring him to try and get an answer out of her. His mouth opened, then closed as tightly as his cover story, too nervous to ask her how she’d liked the date.

As Stiles showed up with pizza for lunch, he cast her one last look. Anna spotted him frowning worriedly at her - how she’d gone right back to ignoring everything again - before leaving for free food.

 

* * *

  


“So, she’s got a weird childhood, a weird uncle, and basically doesn’t exist.”

“Yeeup.”

Stiles stared over Lex’s shoulder at Anna’s personal, physical, file. Terri watched over the other. All three enjoying pizza at a table in the cafeteria.

“So there’s no way we can see what’s redacted?”

“Nope. When we sanitize reports, we _sanitize_.” Lex munched on his pizza again as he shook his head.

Stiles mumbled something through his lunch.

The other two looked over at Stiles, scrunching their brows at him and barking at him in sync. “What?”

He rolled his eyes and finished chewing before pointing a finger at the section of her profile detailing family history.

“I _said_ : Hell, even we don’t know who her parents are.”

Two sets of eyes followed his finger right to the section about parents. He was right, there were no names there, simply listed as “Missing” and writing her as having been taken care of by a grandmother named Jane Smith.

“That’s… Totally not weird. At all.” Lex blinked at it.

“Should we report this?”

Stiles and Lex looked almost offended at the thought, staring at Terri like she’d lost her marbles. She sighed.

“Look, she’s my friend just as much as she is yours, but this means she at least shouldn’t have as high of clearance as she does, and that she _might_ be up to something. She has no known, **living** ties to the US, and she’s able to forge signatures so well that even _I_ have a hard time figuring them out sometimes! What if-?”

“-You really think she’d do this?”

Lex pulled back, appalled at her assumption as well at his own heart as it panged with the thought. The thought that he’d been duped so well by her kindness that dangerous suspicions had slipped under his nose..

“I say we at least talk to her.”

Stiles spoke up again and the two raised an eyebrow each. Again, a huff from him.

“Well, she’s been acting real odd today according to you, Lex, and you both brought up the suspicious uncle, so maybe there’s something abusive going on there she might need help with. If she’s up to something, we’ll just keep at this; talk to Joshua if we find anything really significant.”

Lex stared hard down at the papers in the file, surveying the empty or blacked-out spaces, looking down and sighing at her picture, eyes empty there just as they were when they’d talked that morning.

“Alright then, who should talk to her? I don’t wanna spook her by riding up with the whole posse.” He slapped the file closed and leaned back in his chair, grabbing a last slice of pizza from the box.

Terri spoke up, “I’ll talk to her. Woman to woman: it’ll be less threatening and more likely that she’ll spill if there’s something going on with the uncle.”

“You’re sure?” Stiles crossed his arms, hugging himself with all the nervous anticipation at their little cafeteria table.

“Yes, I pull her to the side after we all sit at our desks and we’ll talk. Speaking of which,” She glanced at the clock. “Lunch is over.”

So, up they got and off they went.

But, boy, were they not expecting the sight they were met with as soon as they walked into their department.

A crowd surrounded Lex and Terri’s desks, all of their coworkers abandoning their own work to watch the scene with shock and curious fascination, with another group just crossing their arms and shaking their heads in condescending disappointment. Dozens of eyes focused on the center desk as Internal Affairs officers rifled through Anna’s things. Some of the jacketed agents were sorting out her possessions, another was snapping photos, and one woman was searching through her computer for files unknown.

Lex began to charge forward, rearing and ready to ask a myriad of questions. What were they doing? Who gave them the order? Where was their warrant? Suddenly, though, Joshua’s hand was pushing on his chest as he looked over, seeming just as distressed as Lex felt, despite how he was holding back the younger man. He just shook his head and looked back to the security team holding Anna in handcuffs.

She was crying, pale skin dripping tears behind loose platinum hair that hid her from the crowd on her left. He thought he saw her shaking there - surrounded by the four intimidating agents.

“What- What the hell happened? I just left for lunch and now-” Lex just stared at the scene, Terri and Stiles joining him at his back.

“Sullivan's been arrested. _Apparently_ an investigation was started last Christmas and they found out she’d been working on some shady stuff. Their C.O. said that they were worried she was going to flee today, so they picked her up early.”

“Investigation?” Lex made a face in his furthered confusion, “What’s she being arrested for? What could she have done?”

Nankin closed his eyes slowly - breathing in and sighing out before turning to look at his protege.

“She’s been accused of treason, and of spying, Lex.”

The world turned numb immediately, his worst fear twisting around him like a cold, dark, trap that’d finally been triggered.

“...Wh-what?”

“She tricked us.”

The agents tossed her Iron Gall ink into a special bag before shutting down her computer and stepping away.

Anna caught his eye for just a second before they took her away, and the fear that covered her face shamelessly weakened the fear’s hold. She looked terrified, eyes wide and panicked, flitting from him to the ground to the wall and then to each security agent’s face. She didn’t look like she was worried for herself and the consequences of her actions-

 

-but of, and for, _someone else_.

 

 


	4. Is It Déjà You?

There was a buzz outside, a loud alarm of the door leading into the chaotic, throbbing, heart of the prison.

She didn’t even flinch.

The two Internal Affairs officers across from the tiny woman waited for their answer.

She didn’t give them one.

The girl just watching them through a curtain of hair nearly as pale as her skin. Steel eyes cold as the metal of the table she was handcuffed to, and as tense as the guards that watched the trio’s every move. She was a traitor; a spy - all present were hard pressed to believe it, yet they understood how she could slip by at the same time, as small and unassuming as she was. The only odd thing about her persona was the orange prison jumpsuit, shocking against the drabness of everything else.

“Miss Sullivan, please, we need you to tell us why you chose to do this. Not talking won’t help your case.”

“I know.”

Not… the most expected first words.

“Then why won’t you answer?”

“I can’t.”

“Because you didn’t do it?” The second officer perked up, finally sitting up properly, shooting his eyebrows to his hairline with all the sarcasm. “Because you didn’t betray your country? Ma’am we have all the evidence we need against you, we just want you to tell us why the hell you _did_ it.”

“-Do you want a lawyer, Miss?”

Anna looked back to the older and rounder of the two.

He was balding, with coke-bottle glasses sitting on a reddened face.

He didn’t like his partner. He was retiring soon by the looks of it, but he’d joined post-Cold War, that made his lack of anger towards her understandable.

His partner was a regular patriot. Hot-tempered and red-blooded, he’d have stuck her in solitary hours ago had he gotten his way - she’d heard him when they came in.

Yes. She wanted a lawyer, she wanted out, and she wanted her life back. But she’d chosen this, and now she would ride it out.

“No.”

The men looked in confusion at each other, but in the end just shrugged it off for another day.

The thought that Pierce better move his ass and get her out of here ran on loop in her head as they left her alone, guards walking forward to lead her away again.

 

* * *

 

Lex didn’t sleep well after Anna’s arrest.

The betrayal had hit him hard, and he’d decided delving into his work was a better idea than allowing himself to keep scratching at the scab of it; the idea that he’d been used yet again for the purposes he fought so hard against. However, nightfall meant going home, hard work meant nothing to do, and that meant nothing painless to do but attempt sleep.

But he couldn’t even achieve a dreamless ounce of it.

Sometimes he was left awake, tossing and turning, and envied Roxy’s happy dream-rabbit chasing - God why did she have to be so cute at 3am? - maybe working on his own small investigation.

Other nights he sunk into nightmares from which he woke on the verge of so many emotions that it tore him up inside.

He was raging at how she’d betrayed all of them, how she’d gone and tricked him by treating him so sweetly; forbidden fruit he’d dared look at. He was grieving; numb and tired. Why had she done it? Why did she choose him to sucker up to and then abandon with all… _this_?

But then there was worry. Worry was what gnawed him awake again - though twice it’d been Roxy doing so quite literally, the corgi begging for breakfast. Lex’s new anxiety stemmed from the idea that maybe all of this was a dream, or **another** trick, or even just not what it seemed on the surface.

Unfortunately for his sleeping schedule, he kept his thoughts to himself, constantly slipping back into work-mode as soon as he arrived at HQ. Occasionally he would switch out his tea for an espresso - _Le Mis_ tea left untouched - or act a little less cheery, but he thought he was doing pretty well covering up how much Anna’s arrest had messed with him. He’d gone nearly two weeks with no one making any clear comments, though some did visibly worry for him.

He was fine.

He'd be fine...

 

But eventually Haisley’s call for him to be at a certain meeting left him with a sense of déjà vu. The worry of another near-failed pleading for innocence filled him as he walked down the halls to the office of the Director; Director of the CIA in its entirety.

“Sir? You asked to see me?” He dropped his usual lax attitude, registering how deep in the shit he would be by starting all this off with some quip, as funny as it might have been.

“Yes. Sit down Lex.” Director Gage was a serious man, but his expression looked about as cold as the metal placard on his door, a freezing glare as he stood by his equally imposing large desk

Lex did as asked, feeling himself start to sweat, and hearing his heartbeat in his ears. He even noticed Deputy Director Quinn was seated in the corner behind him, looking creepy with his shiny bald head and blank but calculating stare at Lex’s back.

The hacker looked right back at the Director.

“What did you need, sir?”

“Nothing. Just some simple answers.”

It was definitely going to be far from simple, if he read the situation right. God, he was back in the detention cell again. What’d Anna gone and accused him of before leaving for the security of prison?

“Okay… Alright…” Lex gulped, almost feeling it echo in the still silence.

Gage nodded and sat down as well, silent as he settled in his nice, comfy, chair, and silent as he took quick stock of the younger man before him.

“I just wanted to ask you, personally…

“- How the **hell** did you let this happen? She transferred practically every sensitive file we have on multiple terrorist groups, among things I’m not even allowed to talk with **_him_ **about!!”

Lex felt his heart leap out his throat and his soul just slightly leave his mortal coils as the Director slammed his hands down on the mahogany with a snarl-like look to his face.

Gage brandished a finger towards Quinn, who was as unruffled as ever.

Lex had to take a minute to kickstart his heart again, and spark his neurons back to work, before he could speak. He was still surprised he hadn’t fallen out of his chair with that jump of his.

“I-I don’t get exactly what you mean sir-”

“You sure as hell know what I mean. You would’ve gotten an alert on your system to the _two_ hacking attempts Miss Sullivan made, the final one on the day she was even arrested!”

He sat up at that, he’d never gotten any sort of message.

“On - On that day I was at lunch almost as soon as she was sitting down! She was late and things were awkward - I didn’t get any sort of message, ever!

“Don’t tell me you didn’t think she was suspicious -”

“Of course I didn’t!” Lex stood up and tossed his hands in the air. He felt his skin boiling with both frustration at the Director and at himself for missing something apparently so obvious.

The director glared coldly again, face disturbingly calm.

Lex plopped back down into his seat and rubbed his hands over his face.

“I didn’t suspect her until the weekend, and the day she was arrested. I found… weird info on her and her life and it tripped my radar there - but not to the idea of- of spying!” He leaned on his elbows and gestured to an imaginary desk of notes.

Gage leaned forward at the idea of new, possibly damning, information, his scare tactic was as solid as usual - though he excluded Sullivan from those predictions, she wasn’t anyone average, so like hell she’d give away information with just a little bit of a spook…

“What kind of info, kid?”

Lex ran a hand through his hair and thought back to it all.

“Well, she technically doesn’t exist before the age of ten for starters…”

“What?” Quinn piped up from the back, understandably worried as to how someone had managed to slip their way into the CIA without _that much_ necessary information.

Lex looked back and forth between them then, “Her U.S. birth certificate, as far as myself and my department’s best forger are concerned, is falsified, her parents are unknown entirely, and I found that her grandparents - they started taking care of her at ten - are linked to high standing government officials.”

“How high up are you talking, kid?”

His head swiveled back to face the Director, “Anna’s ‘great-grandfather’ was a four-star general during World War Two and served as one of this agency’s first directors.”

They squinted at him in near-disbelief. Lex just rolled his eyes a bit, relaxing with the fact that there wasn’t going to be any more jump-scares.

“That took me forty-eight hours and six _pots_ of espresso to find, so it wasn’t exactly listed on her application to get in.”

“What else? Perhaps she was just kidnapped.” Quinn, the ever negative and somber presence, brought in some sharp logic.

However, Lex was prepared.

“Not kidnapped. Anna had a very public record after she showed up on the map. She used to speak fluent Russian, and had a heavy accent, but years of specialized classes gave her the midwestern one she has today. _And_ she got in a lot of fights during that time too, especially in middle-school, fought kids over and for things more than you’d expect… Five fights in sixth grade alone, only just barely stayed in the school.”

“So, she fought a lot, she got better, is that all?” Gage raised an eyebrow.

He was infodumping now, and there was no stopping him if they tried. Not that they would, of course.

“Anna also took classes reminiscent to our own CIA agent requirements during her _childhood_ ! I mean, I’m talking advanced coding, debate, and survival in every element - including in the tundra, they took a oddly long trip to Alaska. She was taking martial arts classes of every type - even into college - while at the same time fighting for the spot as her high-school’s Prima Ballerina. Hell, Anna even has competition medals for sharpshooting and _knife-throwing_. She was an awesome kid, pushed herself so much that she took an early college class on forensic science in her junior year!”

Quinn stood and moved over to Gage’s desk, now raising _his_ eyebrow.

“This is all well and perfectly odd, but how exactly does this prove her an innocent woman?”

Lex opened his mouth, and then shut it again. He only had the one incident, and her actions the day of her arrest for “evidence”. He’d just told them everything they’d need to pose her as a sleeper cell of some terrorist organization. Even he felt a guilty pant of doubt in her innocence before he took and deep breath and sighed it out.

“It’s not much, but we ended up at the same coffee bar last friday-”

“She was tracking you?”

“No! No no. She was the singer for the night, you have to sign up for that **weeks** beforehand! No. What happened is that we… We kinda hung out for the evening, we’d talk about _non-work_ things when she had a break, since I had a lot of paperwork to work on for Roxy, my dog. But at the end of the night, this creepy guy showed up and whisked her off.”

He then elaborated on the incident, on the insistence of the man, on his threat of violence, on how afraid Anna had looked...

“What’s so special about her being afraid? It could’ve just been worry for whoever was the subject of family emergency, or that she’d been caught out so late.”

“-Or on a date.” Added Quinn, he knew how much the boy liked Miss Sullivan, and of course he wouldn’t allow that fact to be glossed over.

Lex blushed. “Because- because I’ve seen that fear you guys mention on a lot of faces in my life, but she looked different; more terrified than embarrassed or anything. And she looked terrified of him, specifically, as if he was primed to kill her if she said something out of line. She looked almost the same way when she came back to work too…”

The two older men watched him as he rubbed at his neck out of nervousness.

“-but, of course, I’ve been up for forty-eight hours straight, and I can’t exactly hack paper.”

One last look shared between the two men and they decided they might as well.

“So. If what you shared is to believed, then she was likely being blackmailed into sharing the information she did, or she was kidnapped and trained specifically for this purpose, with her parents being held as deterrent from any form of leaking of their own information.”

Lex’s head shot up to stare at him with big whiskey-colored eyes. Holy- they actually weren’t looking just to lock her up and toss the key?

“Yes- yes I suppose so, with the information I have right now.”

Quinn was actually the first to sigh with a sort of remorse, a shock to both of the other men. “Let’s hope it's that and not any sort of darker solution.” He looked back up to the others. “As horrendous her actions, she was a kind person; a good person. And I’d very much like to not lose my faith in humanity just yet.”

Somber as usual, though kinder, the other two mirrored his sentiment.

 

* * *

 

Anna was the perfect prisoner.

She was quiet enough, and respectful enough to the guards to gain their appreciation, but aside from them, Anna terrified the rest of the federal prison.

A few had attempted to fight her during their time outside, or intimidate her into joining one gang or another. But anyone who attempted to corner her, usually ran out with a red stain on their jumpsuit and a limp or scream.

The guards couldn’t find her shiv, but didn’t really care to.

This left her with a lot of alone time, mostly still in her cell, waiting for another interrogation, or for the next sad meal to be slid in for her. She liked it, the quiet-ish existence with nothing to have to do and no other “roommates”. Of course, she also knew that within a few more weeks, the pounding on doors and shouting from the other inmates, accompanied by nothing to occupy herself with but the prison’s limited library - forgetting even basic human contact - would likely drive her up the walls and into the fray of the rest of the crowd.

For now though, she decided that she liked it.

What she _did not_ like, was someone **else** pounding on her door at what was likely the equivalent to 4 am, seeing as fluorescent lights had already started wrecking her internal clock.

The door rattled again, metal clanking and echoing around the small cell.

“Oh my God… What _is_ it?!”

Anna flew out of bed and snarled at the door, her eyes met those of a guard through the tiny window and grate.

“You have visitors.”

The sound of the lock being undone confused her. They wouldn’t visit her at this ungodly hour, ever, not those two idiots.

However, Anna did as she was asked, though tense and cautious of the guard and his every movement, careful not to lose the power she had in every stance and step of the process. Once she was handcuffed, she was led away to the visitation room and plopped down at a table deep into a corner, not her usual seating arrangement. Anna felt the chills running down her spine as she was hidden in the seat with no way out.

She heard the guard halt at his post just beyond her table, then she heard a whirring that made her nearly weep with fear, though she instead pressed her nails into her palms.

Every camera was turned away from her; pointed downward or to the ceiling, to the far left or the far right, she could die here and no one would know what’d happened.

A tall figure, thin, handsome, and all-too familiar, walked into the room with his usual swagger, alongside another man that was his opposite in nearly every respect. The other man was average-sized and average-faced, with pale skin, dark blue eyes, and a scarred face. He wore a casual suit with gold chains laced around his neck like grand prizes, and his sneer at her clearly laid out that his intentions were _not_ to release her - or her parents.

“ _Hello, little piggy! You thought you’d gone and slipped out of my fingers, didn’t you_!”

He sounded almost giddy as he spoke in fluent _russkiy_ , like hunting down her whereabouts were a game, and insulting her would bring no retaliation.

“ _Hello… Uncles.”_

 _“I take it they caught you transferring the files? Poor little piggy, not as good at coding as you thought you were?”_ The handsomer of the two smiled emptily at her, eyes void of anything living. The other man whacked his arm and leaned forward.

“ _Now, we do hate to bother you Anna, but you seen to have forgotten a certain file we requested of you a_ **_while_ ** _ago. A_ **_physical_ ** _one._ ”

The top secret layout plans to multiple safe-houses and bunkers of the CIA: that file was what they were looking for.

The one she hid during a sleepless night after New Year’s, after they’d ordered her to find it and the other files in exchange for her lost family’s survival.

The file she’d hidden on Lex’s desk. That file.

“ _What file_?”

The handsome man snarled at her, loudly. “ _You know exactly which one, you_ **_child_ ** _, where’d you go and hide it?!”_ His nails, perfectly manicured, left marks on the table.

Anna kept calm, carving her own marks on her hands, with her own stubby nails.

“ _You searched everything and still can’t find it? It seems I’m better at hide and seek than you thought.”_

The men didn’t find the reflection funny, instead sliding their chairs closer, pinning her in tighter.

“ _You are very cute, little pig, but being_ **_cute_ ** _does not save your family. Now, where is the file hidden?”_

Anna thought about it for a moment, trying to recollect her false hiding place.

“ _My house, the one swarming with CIA at the moment.”_

 _“_ **_What_ ** _?!”_ They spoke in unison, both similarly filled with both rage and panic.

She nearly flinched. A roll of the eyes as soon as she was calm enough.

“ _Not anywhere that they could find it, but you’ll have to wait until they leave to go and get it.”_

 _“How long will that take_?” The handsome one slicked back his dark hair with a similarly dark look on his face.

She thought about the best time to lull them into a false sense of security.

“ _At least a month, gives them time to think they’ve gotten everything_.”

Though that wasn’t counting the extra few weeks of surveillance and security detail that would likely be assigned there. She _was_ a traitor to the US, it’s not like they’d let her little HQ fall off the radar.

Her “uncles” left her, growling at her incompetence and the fact that they’d have to wait, but left her without any further threats to her family.

The walk back to her cell was a numb relief.

 

* * *

 

Lex was back at work soon after his meeting, though an email had already been sent to Nankin about Lex, Terri, and Stiles’ reassignment from whatever their current projects were, to the investigation of Anna Sullivan. Of course there were others who were assigned, but the trio’s leaving was the one Joshua complained about the most that evening.

The work was going to be frustrating, and the team a mish-mash of people he either didn’t know or didn’t like working with, but he was going to make it work.

He had to.

The Deputy Director wasn’t too keen on his appointment to the team already, worried that his crush would lead to a bias that might overlook painful facts.

“Strong lights cast strong shadows, Lex.” He’d said, “And so kind people often hide darker sides of themselves. Don’t let her trick you into believing there’s no such thing.”

The hacker wasn’t about to let that happen.

But, God, did Lex hope he was right about this.


	5. Light ‘Em Up

“Lex!”

Lex swiveled his head around, sitting up as straight as a board to see who was yelling at him.

Terri handed him his cup of tea for the evening, accompanied by a teasing grin at having spooked him, before tossing another file onto the pile growing on his desk. The tea was full of caffeine, as requested, and he sipped at it with a playful glare back at her as he grabbed the file.

“Ha ha _ha_. Very funny, Terri.”

“As always, just keeping up morale.”

“And we’ll be doing that by scaring everyone? I’m not sure you read the right article, Miss Lowell.”

She rolled her eyes at him.

“Just read the file, Lex.”

He grinned mischievously at her as he turned back to the paperwork she and the others had decrypted. He frowned at it.

“So the LUDs pulled up blank? Completely?”

“Yep. No calls to or from anyone at the house. We’re trying to search her mail but it seems her neighbor’s been picking it up for her.”

Lex raised an eyebrow, “Can’t you talk to them? Don’t tell me the dog shredded it for them.”

Terri sat at her own desk and pulled back all that brown hair, annoyed with dealing with it falling into her coffee for the third time that night. “Nope. She refuses to believe us, says Anna was too nice to her and her _cats_ to be a spy or traitor. Poor lady… We’re having to get a court order to get the mail because of a bunch of legal loopholes her lawyer son told her about.”

A shake of the head from Lex, a pitying look on his face. “I mean, I can’t blame her too much, it’s not like we believed it until it happened either. And, hell, we’re **here** to try and _dis_ prove it.”

“Yeah…” Terri mirrored him as she set about looking over her own file-pile, sifting through what was going to have to go through a process longer than the workday they had left, and through what was just junk or repeat information.

“Lex!”

Lex wasn’t spooked this time, only concerned by the growl in the speaker’s tone. He swung his chair around and looked up to see a man he barely knew, except from the fact that he knew he had some small role on their team. He was huffing and puffing behind Lex’s computer, and his face was oddly red and splotchy as he glared down at the younger man.

“Ye-e-es?”

“Why the **hell** didn’t you read that file I sent you?”

Lex tried - with all his might - not to visibly sigh or facepalm at him, instead resorting to just folding his hands together.

“I emailed you about that, Bradl-”

“I know that, you _idiot_. I just want to know the real reason you keep refusing to read what I put in front of you! I find important information too!”

Lex finally sighed a little and leaned back in his chair. “Bradley, I **told** you the real reason why. It’s duplicate information. We already found that two weeks ago. If you’re not sure if what you find is a copy, just check the list we’ve got in our meeting room.”

“I don’t care! If I found it at the same time as someone else, you’d still throw it out, I know it!” It was right then that Lex knew that the man - middle-aged and starting to lose his hair, though Lex wasn’t sure if that was from age or self-induced stress - was there, screaming at him, just to scream.

How to get rid of him calmly?

“Hell, I bet you’re just defending her because you think she’s got the hots for you!”

Even Terri was bristling as soon as the words left Bradley’s mouth. Lex instead just felt himself go perfectly calm and impeccably livid. His folded hands tightened to fists and his nerves tingled as he stood, eyes freezing cold as he glared at the other man.

“You think I’d be fighting this hard, and searching this late, and dragging so many of your into this if I didn’t think she might _actually_ be innocent?” He stood and leaned over his desk, practically laughing, “Do you think that the Director himself would appoint me to head this little team if he didn’t think it was a good idea? Or that I wasn’t justly motivated? Everyone liked her, she was everyone’s friend, and now we’re trying to see how in the world this could have happened to her!”

Bradley’s went wide, looking shocked at how bold the short young man was.

Lex ignored him and sat right back down, ready to slide back to his desk with his newly sorted files.

“She was a player, stupid! Went and lead at least half the office along on a string and then cut it as soon as you came in the room!”

He shoved at Lex, nearly toppling him over rather than shoving him away.

Stiles entered the room and stood back, eating his well-earned chips and waiting to see where this went.

Lex just ignored him and his taunting, not bothering to argue his little “point”.

“For all we know, she might be another **Olivia**.” Bradley sneered at him.

Lex felt the heat creep up his neck at the reminder. Those had been the worst days of his life, and Bradley had just decided to drag it all up to the surface. “ _Shut up_.”

Bradley did _not_ shut up.

“Did she blame you for something? Accuse the Director? I bet she and you had _lovely_ weekend and then she slapped you with some sort of threat to get some secret, didn’t she?! That’s why we’re all stuck working on this-!”

“I said shut up!”

Lex nearly screamed at him, shooting out of his chair, and forcing Stiles to drop his chips and pull Bradley back. Terri doing the same with Lex; both men at each other’s throats.

“Gentlemen!”

Joshua was brought out by the noise, shouting from the door of his office. He and his bushy eyebrows looked perfectly annoyed with the disturbance.

The two stepped back, Lex lowering his head.

“Bradley, get back to your desk or you’ll be seeing yourself copying for the rest of the week. Lex chill out and get back to your investigation. We’ve got just an hour until the day’s over, I don’t want to leave the cleaning crew with blood-strains to get out, you hear me?”

The two nodded, and Stiles and Terri released their respective hostages.

Bradley gave Lex - who didn’t respond - one last death glare before returning to his desk and to his own research.

Lex just sat down and ran his hands over his face, groaning with frustration. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up, worried to see his boss standing over him. He didn’t expect the pep-talk he got.

“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to a thing till you get there.”

Lex just- blinked at Joshua. “What-?”

“It’s a quote from Josh Billings. Now, get back to work.”

He spun a still befuddled Lex around and pushed his chair over to his desk, then headed right back to his office.

He never saw the shocked look on the hacker’s face as something in his desk clicked and a secret compartment literally dumped evidence into his lap.

“Guys?!” Lex sounded both afraid and excited, praying that this might just be the answer that could solve the case - right here and now.

 

* * *

 

“ _You have_ **_got_ ** _to be kidding me_.”

“ _Unfortunately, I’m not_.”

Vasily took back the binoculars and focused back on a small, unsuspecting, townhouse in the middle of the gated community. Sure, it wasn’t the fanciest place, but why the hell did this woman have to live **here** of all places? He wondered if she moved here on purpose, after they’d started working with her, just to make everything _that_ much harder for them.

“ _Sitting out here any longer is just going to earn us a call to the police, so just move in and we’ll figure out a way to get by_.”

Daniil sighed at his compatriot’s boldness, but pulled away from the curb and to the gates anyways. He’d been so good at keeping a clean record so far, and he wasn’t entirely too keen on being caught forcing open some cheap security gate.

They pulled up to the little passcode-box, looking at the numbers and trying to solve a way in, hoping that hacking would be a last resort that they wouldn’t have to attempt. They both hoped for some sort of good luck, but expected the worst.

“Do you young men need some help?”

The pair sharply turned to the voice, startled pale before registering its owner.

She was a little old woman with blue-rinsed hair in curls around her head, first standing by the gate and then walking towards them with her arms full of groceries.

Shit.

Vasily put on his most charming smile and nodded at her. “Yes, please. If you could.”

She walked up near the window, safely to the side - wise he thought - and smiled back at the handsome man. “Now what do you need some help with?”

She sounded understandably suspicious of the two men arriving so late at night.

The Russian turned his eyebrows down and made his smile more embarrassed. “My silly brother here had a bad date, young lady went through his things and took his wallet. The one that had his passcode.”

She looked over Daniil, looking him over - he looked similar enough to the other man, though maybe a little older, and much taller; broader.

Vasily pinched his companion’s leg, urging him into character.

The other man flinched before sinking in his seat, trying very hard to look like he was ashamed and sad, like he’d been so horribly betrayed by his date. He thought back to every horrible ex he’d ever had to try and help his little acting stint.

The sweet little old woman stared, before she sighed and cooed at him.

“You poor boy… Let me get you two in, I hope you have a better day tomorrow than you did today.”

Daniil flashed her a thankful, tired smile. Vasily gave her the biggest, kindest, warmest grin. “You’re angel, ma’am. An absolute God-sent.”

She laughed as she went and punched in the code.

“Flatterer.” She smiled back at them as the gate slid open on its track, and they pulled through without a problem. “Now, have a lovely night!”

“Oh, we will!”

As soon as they’d gotten in, and rolled up the windows, Vasily burst out cackling while Daniil groaned, thumping his head against the steering wheel.

“ _Take a left up here- Oh God that was hilarious_.”

Daniil shot his superior a glare - the situation hadn’t been the least bit funny to him - before turning and making it down to the Sullivan girl’s house, the two-story sitting perfectly in the middle of the complex, and attached to another apartment. As he pulled in the drive, Daniil made a wary check of surrounding area, only to be shocked out of it by Vasily just hopping out with the toolbox. He followed him and leapt out of the car, running around to stop him before he entered the house and breached the crime scene tape.

“What are you doing?!” He hissed in English, not knowing if there were bugs, or even worse, cameras. Sure, they both wore FBI windbreakers, but he knew they were outdated, and speaking fluent Russian wouldn’t help them avoid being noticed.

“The security’s gone, Daniel, don’t freak out on me, we’re here for a reason.”

As much as Vasily acted like it was perfectly safe, he still acted like his accomplice was. He spoke in English, and used his English name - he knew better than to completely trust the expected when concerning the Americans.

So, with a slightly waned sense of panic, the pair stepped under the tape and into the door.

The place was… empty, in every sense of the word. Not a soul had breathed in the place for days - they knew, they’d checked - and every floor and wall was bare, save the center. There in the center was every piece of furniture, including the bed mattress and various pillows. All of it was rifled through or cut into, the agents previously there searching for evidence, for files lost, or for anything leading to her association with… well, them. But alas, they didn’t know who she was affiliated with, and so didn’t know that the two of them in the house were some of the worst people to possibly be there at that moment.

“She mentioned cutting into walls, so let’s get a head start. You know the drill. I’ll look for any other secret compartments.”

Daniil rumbled, “Why are you not cutting as well?” He already hated how Vasily had gone and made him subject to an embarrassing story, and forced him to drive him like some chaperone. But if he was going to go break into the fridge or just wander about, he was going to leave him right then and there.

“I will, I just need to make sure they didn’t leave anything behind.” The charming man flashed him a slimy grin before turning on the small flashlight attached to his jacket. He then left the tools behind with “Daniel” and whisked away, up the stairs, and ignoring his partner.

Daniil grumbled in weak protest before just doing as told, pulling out the drop cloth and draping it over the floor near the most obvious wall in the room.

She would have known the FBI would check the more secretive places first, so he might as well start in the least inconspicuous spot.

Daniil clicked the utility blade out as far as he needed it, the moonlight mixing with streetlights on the blade and making it gleam.

It cut through the wall like butter, and he set about his own search.

 

* * *

 

“Guys?!” Lex repeated his plea, hoping for one of his friends to hear him.

Terri was the first to turn back around, then she whacked Stiles’ arm to get him to notice too. She knew that voice wasn’t in any way a good one. They hurried over and froze as soon as they saw the papers.

“...The hell?” Stiles snatched a pair of Terri’s too-small examination gloves from the box on her desk and picked the evidence up gently and gave them a brief once-over, before moving them to Anna’s desk and laying them all out. Lex haphazardly checked his pants for any sort of suspicious dust before just dusting off whatever he couldn’t see and following them.

Stiles laid out the pieces like they were made of fragile china, before finally looking at the information, and at the letter, before them.

The three of them peered down at it all like they were studying a war room table, careful not to let a detail slip away from their watch.

There were files that’d been copied: building specs and weapon plans, as well as a couple of high-profile, forcefully de-classified, personnel papers. But then there was a note, a letter left on top of the pile, only to slide off and under the other papers as they’d been laid out. Stiles tilted his head at it, and Lex and Terri mirrored him.

The letter was written in a hurry, on a torn shred of notepad paper. The date was the same day that she’d been arrested, and the writing was a scrawling cursive font they’d never seen from her before, nothing had ever been so desperate. But, Terri assured them, it was hers - as strange as it was.

Lex was the next to steal a glove, snapping it on and clutching it up, his breathing shaking just the slightest. He tried not to gasp in the air he felt he dearly needed. Whiskey eyes trailed yellowed paper.

“Lex. My kind, leaf-water-loving, energetic, friend. I’m sorry that we only got that one date, and I’m even more sorry that you’ll be having to deal with what I’ve done. I never wanted to be stuck in the situation I’m in now, but I’m here, and I have to protect my family more than anything. I left these files here, hidden, and under your watch, because I know that you are the best person to try and help me from the outside. Your skills in your department are unmatched, and your willingness to do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, is invaluable.

But before I beg for your forgiveness, I beg for your help-”

He gulped and the other two watched him, widening eyes and throwing up hands with expectancy of an answer.

Finally, Lex was startled from his reading by an annoyed, and very tired, Stiles.

“Okay, you gonna let us read it? Or you gonna share with the class?”

Lex whipped his head around to face them and then sheepishly smiled, “Sorry.”

He put down the paper for them to read together, Lex not trusting his voice at that moment. Instead, he let them read for themselves, let them read the words that forced him back into his chair.

“Oh God…”

“Yeah. Ditto…”

Lex tried peeling the gloves off his hands, but they kept snapping back on or sticking to his skin and he eventually just painfully ripped them off and growled at himself. He ran his hands over his face; pushing and pulling at his own skin in worry.

Joshua came out, coat on, keys in hand, and ready to go home, when he ran into the trio at Anna’s desk, looking seriously worried.

“Great, what’d you three find now?... Did she steal the launch codes or something?”

They all looked up, except for Stiles, who instead took the letter from the desk and read the main part of it aloud. He skipped the intro for Lex’s sake.

“- And again, I’m so sorry, Lex, that I got myself caught, and that I did all of those things behind your back. You see, while I joined this agency to find my family, I’ve been threatened into working for another that had actually taken them - that agency being a group of former KGB operatives working under the banner of _Bespredel_. They have my parents, and they’ll kill them - and me - if I don’t deliver at least the bulk of what they asked for.”

Stiles then took a brief look at Joshua before returning to the last part he’d read.

“I know this will be hard to believe, but I promise that I have proof, I’m keeping it at my house, safely tucked away from my bosses, and from Internal Affairs.”

He put the letter back down. “There’s some more, but it’s all a letter to Lex, seems like she hid it right before the arrest.”

Joshua just stood there for a moment, blinking and taking it all in.

He didn’t have enough time to react before Haisley burst in, looking more frantic than he usually did. The man, hunching over like usual, nervously adjusted his glasses before panting from his run and blurting out, “Miss Sullivan's house. It’s just been broken into.” He turned to Lex, “One of them is the uncle you described.”

“Crap.” Lex shut down his work station and grabbed the letter, before throwing on his jacket and slinging on his handbag.

The other four followed, with Terri putting her project away, and Stiles gently putting the files in a portfolio bag to drop off to the archives on their way out.

All of them were quick to leave, rushing to grab an agency car and make it over in time with the police.

He hoped they could catch them - catch them in the act and make them talk. He hoped they would confirm the letter; spilling the beans.

 

But even more he hoped this wasn’t some precursor to something worse.

 

* * *

 

Daniil was sweating like a storm cloud over the dropcloth, furious and exhausted. He’d broken into every wall that could’ve held the files, but to no avail. Hell, he’d even started prying up floorboards at one point, but now, having finished checking the more obvious places she’d have hid it, he was finally starting to think that this may have been a ruse entirely.

“Basil?! The hell are you?”

He roared up the stairs, and the charming man was instantly down, looking worried.

 _“He should be_ …” Daniil thought venomously.

Vasily looked around before growling and snapping at Daniil. “What?! You scared me!”

“The files. _Aren’t_ . **_Here_ **.” He took a step with each word, ready to punch the little prince that he’d been stuck with for his insolence and idiocy.

“Shit…” He cursed in a whisper before looking around at everything.

The last-opened wall however, caught his roving ice-blue eye.

Shoving past his grunt, he pulled something from deep down inside the wall, Daniil crossing his arms and curling his lip as he waited for an explanation.

The prince read the papers with a growing sense of rage. Ice turning to burning blue, and pale skin going tomato red.

He crumpled up the papers and swung to face his muscle-man.

“ _Get the car ready. We’re torching this place_.”

Daniil blinked dumbly at him. Not only had he switched to Russian, but what he was talking about was almost ludicrous - torch the hidden files?

“ **_Now!_ **”

That snapped him out of his confusion. Sparking to life, he ran to the garage and pulled in their getaway vehicle.

As he left, Vasily let out a scream of anguish.

This- this child; this _girl_ , had set them up for capture, forcing them to take their time, and making sure they’d be noticed. He’d kill her himself if his uncle let him.

But for now, the house was his main concern.

He ran to the bathroom, the images spinning in his head as he searched for hairspray.

The little bitch had run and printed every email and every LUD from her burn-phone, before hiding it in that wall. She’d collected evidence, IP addresses, everything that - if some of her little friends helped prove her innocent - could prove them guilty, and jeopardize their entire operation. America would be saved from their hand, and Russia would be left on its crutch yet again.

Vasily couldn’t let that happen.

At last his fingers wrapped around the cold tin of a hairspray can, and he pulled out his golden lighter.

He ran back downstairs and nearly slammed into Daniil.

“ _Car’s ready-_ ”

“ _Get me some gasoline.”_

Daniil sighed and did as asked, knowing that they must only have so much time. As soon as he returned with a quarter-filled container, Vasily put down the lighter and hairspray as he ripped the canister from him and popped the top. Turning to the furniture, he grabbed a pillow case from the pile and ripped a long piece from it, twisting it and folding until it was a short enough yet long enough length for the can. He lit the linen and stuck the other end in the case, before sliding the can into the middle of room, nearing the kitchen.

Then it was a matter of running.

Daniil didn’t need to be told what’d been made, he just bolted for the car and slid into the driver’s seat, and waiting for Vasily to follow.

The man hopped in and slammed the door shut, screaming, “ **_Drive, idiot!_ **”

So, with a squeal of tires, they were out of the garage - nearly scraping the bottom of the door - and screeching down the street

The explosion behind them, and the fire that followed, was all that would be left of their expedition.

There would be no finding them now.

 

The cat that leapt from the second-story bedroom, to the tree outside, would be, however.

 

 


	6. Proof In Ashes

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

It should’ve been dawn by the time they arrived, with pink and pastel yellow fading into a periwinkle blue sky. But instead they were forced to weave through haphazardly parked emergency vehicles with the windows up as the black smoke blocked out the sun above them. Other CIA vans followed behind them in the bleak morning, everything covered in a snowing of ash.

A policeman tapped on their window, and Stiles rolled it down just a bit.

“I.D. please.”

Stiles flashed his CIA badge at the man and pointed ahead, noting the name stitched onto his shirt.

“A.B. Stiles, Central Intelligence, what’s going on up ahead, Officer McCleod?”

The officer’s eyebrows shot up into his bright red hair, before he hissed through his teeth with a wince.

“House fire at your old crime scene. The fire department’s guessing explosion-slash-arson since the place  _ reeks _ of gasoline. Thing tried to spread to the neighbors’.”

Lex clenched his jaw tight enough to keep from screaming with frustration - now they were screwed, royally - before taking a deep breath. He leaned forward to try and speak with the other man.

“How long ‘til we can head in? It’s an emergency.”

He shrugged, hands on his belt. “No idea, I’ll go see for ya, but don’t try and go further in, don’t need you guys getting in the way of the fire trucks. You might have an emergency, but fire takes precedence.”

Stiles, Lex, and Terri all nodded and sat back, sticking the car in park.

Terri grabbed the radio and clicked it on, speaking through the brief crackle, “Stand down guys and park. Getting an ETA on when we can go in. Fire department’s still hosing it down.”

Joshua audibly and pointedly groaned at the situation over the radio, while Haisley’s team just parked in silence.

It was a tense silence after that, with nothing to do and everyone’s patience running thinner for every minute their ETA question was left unanswered, and then even thinner for every extra puff of black smoke that curled up to the sky - more evidence gone. Lex hated the near silence of it all, seeing as it left him with his own thoughts longer than he liked to be. His thoughts jumped from side to side of this investigation’s entirety. They bounced from hoping they could prove the girl he’d started falling for an innocent woman, to frantically worrying as to the chance that this was exactly what she wanted. He didn’t know her, not really, and she’d literally tried to betray her own country - but what if her letter had been true?

At last though, trucks began to move in front of them, and the young officer returned with a bit of a smile. He tapped the window again and Stiles rolled it down again.

“You’re clear! Jus’ don’t block in the one that they’re keeping here in case something else crops up. I hope you find what you need!”

They were all glad for a smiling face, but quickly sped off to the front of the townhouse as soon as the firetrucks cleared out enough. As the trio finally stepped out of the cramped business car, they were struck with terrified awe at the damage.

The house was formerly some sort of pastel color, but now nothing but the tiniest pieces had evaded a complete scorching. Soot was painted above windows and the front door, the paint was peeling from the heat, and the centers of the fire had quickly faded from burning, glowing, golds, to dull ash. The roof of the house had collapsed and fallen through to the first floor, crushing anything beneath it. After that, everything had been soaked with an ocean’s worth of water, turning coals to grey mud. It’d be a real reach to say anything of relevance had survived the fire, not even their cameras could’ve survived that.

Everyone else filed out of the vans, first rushing, before slowing next to the three, recognizing how bad a situation it was.

“There’s… There’s not even a wall left standing to search.” Joshua whispered.

As if on cue, a last piece of roofing toppled down to what might’ve been a kitchen.

“They said it was an explosion.” Stiles hyummed.

“And an arson…” Lex felt all of his hopes just circle the bowl. There was no way to prove her completely innocent  **or** guilty now, all paper evidence was gone, there would likely be no physical evidence left-

He felt something fluffy brush against his leg and peered down.

A very fluffy cat was loving on his leg, pressing itself into his pant leg and leaving long wisps of fur in its wake. Lex sighed and patted its head - silly thing - before looking back to the scene.

“And we’re sure the cameras got toasted?” He looked over to Haisley who motioned for his bunch to go double-check.

“Most likely, we put them in the walls and in some of the furniture.” The balding man sighed. “The exact same stuff now toasted under the roof.”

Everyone sighed - nearly in unison - as they watched their investigation go up in smoke.

“Mrow!”

The cat continued to rub against Lex’s leg, and he nearly pushed it away, too emotional, too frustrated, to really deal with a normally adorable little feline. It flopped over on its own though, requesting - demanding - more pets from the man.

And something flashed on its collar…

Lex crouched down to examine the grey tabby, stroking its head before focusing on the bejeweled pink collar.

“Leonard…” Lex froze, how-?

The cat attacked his arm as soon as he stopped petting it and forced him back to focusing. Aside from the odd name coincidence, there was something else he saw on the collar, a lightly bedazzled charm hanging beside the cat’s tags. Lex unclipped it, and held it closer for inspection.

Oh God… He felt a grin begin to spread across his face as he recognized what it was. With a last fluffing up of the kitten’s fur, he sat down in the grass and picked off the fake rhinestones from the USB port.

“Lex?...”

“Yes?”

“What are you doing?” Terri walked over to him and leaned over, curious and confused as to why he had such a huge smile.

“Solving our problem, and taking this cat back to its owner.”

With a huff, Lex hopped to his feet, slipped the USB in his pocket, and swept the cat into his arms. The thing just purred as loud as his motorcycle in his arms, flopping across them like a ragdoll.

“Solving-?”

“I’ll be back in a minute, see if the cameras or the mics got saved for me, will ya?!” He shouted over his shoulder, walking down the complex to the crowd of people who were slowly dispersing by the roadside - no longer any fiery entertainment to watch.

He saw her watching with worry as the smoke began to clear from the complex.

“Ma’am? Is this your cat?”

Lex watched as a little old woman with blue-rinsed hair - in curls around her head - turned to look at him, first squinting at him in confusion, and then grinning as she recognized her darling pet.

“Leonard! Where have you been?! Thank you, young man!”

Lex gave her his most charming smile as he gently handed over the tabby. “She was over by Anna Sullivan’s old place, poor thing was probably looking for her.”

The woman sighed sadly at the cat, stroking over her ears. “Poor Leonard… He misses her, they all do.” She peered back up at Lex with her coke-bottle glasses, “Apologies, I’m Meredith. Did you know her? Anna I mean.”

The young man nodded solemnly; felt his doubts trying to raise their ugly heads again. He shoved them back down to get back to his work.

“Yes. Good friend of mine, we’re trying to see if she  _ is _ innocent.”

“Oh! That’s good, very good. Life hasn’t been the same without her around.”

“I bet, she told me she really loves ‘sitting for your cats - told me all about them.”

“You knew her well then?”

She sounded somewhat more serious now, less curious and more… interrogative. Lex nodded at her and she appraised him for a brief moment before walking towards her nearby house. “Follow me.”

Lex did as asked, trotting along to catch up with her.

She stopped him at the door, dumping the cat to the floor and disappearing inside the townhouse that smelled of cats and mothballs, with a plethora of old ‘70s furniture scattered about from where he could see. Soon after, she came back and handed him a stack of envelopes.

“I didn’t want these getting tossed out or disappearing; something like that, I just… I couldn’t believe she’d do something like they said she did.”

Lex could only smile sadly, “Gotta agree with you there…” 

“Well I hope you find out the truth, dear. Good day!” Her wrinkled smile lit the doorway as they began to part ways. He thought about leaving right then, but then wondered, pausing a minute and turning back. “Did you notice anything off last night? Anyone strange maybe?”

She had nearly closed the door when she heard him. She perked up and frowned as she thought.

“No, just a couple of young men forgot their pass-code in, I’d never seen them around before, but I’m not sure if they’re new residents or not.” Lex nodded, not much to work with- “One seemed very rich though, very handsome young man, suit and everything.”

He stopped.

“Did he have blue eyes, really pale skin? Maybe looked a bit, ya’know, mafia?”

She tilted her head before shrugging. “Looks-wise you’re right, I’m not sure about mafia though…”

Lex felt fear spill down his spine like ice-water at her words, and he only barely managed to smile and wave a goodbye to Meredith as he ran back to the team.

Nankin was the first to see him return, and raised a bushy grey eyebrow at his winded figure, hunched over as he caught his breath again.

“What scared  _ you _ , Roadrunner? 

Terri and Stiles finally looked back over to them, just as Lex stood straight again - giving his boss a quick glare before pulling the USB out of his pocket. 

“Found the key, and who set the fire.”

Their little team all cheered, moral spiking with some good news at last - but it wasn’t to last very long.

“Lex! Nankin!” Haisley was pressing a phone to his ear and ushering them and his agents over. Lex didn’t like the panicked tone he was using.

“What-?”

“Break-in over at the federal prison.  _ Sullivan’s _ prison.”

Well, shit.

 

* * *

 

“ _ -Not a drill. I repeat, this is  _ **_not_ ** _ a drill. This is a  _ **_full_ ** _  lock-down. All personnel report to the gun-locker and stay alert for intruders.” _

Anna had heard her door clunk shut minutes ago, and already she’d packed as much of her contraband as she could, including her collection of shivs, hidden in different parts of her jumpsuit.

Notes - check.

Decoder for notes, also coded - check.

Burn Phone - check

Shivs ready and sheathed - check.

The spy was just tying her hair up into a sturdy bun when she heard a shot right outside her door and a heavy ‘thUD’ right after. She tried her hardest not to notice the blood staining the window of her cell door.

But when his voice crept in, cold and harsh and strident to her ears, she was forced to look.

“Little piggy, little piggy…”

His cold, cruel eye turned turned a violet color through the thick now-red glass.

“Let. Me. In.”

He snapped his fingers, giving her a last serpentine smile before he stepped away and two grunts replaced him, carrying something.

“Bam-” The door rattled on its hinges, not strong enough to hold much longer.

“BAM-” A bolt squeaked as it was pried out, and a bit of the glass cracked. Anna grabbed up her things and shoved them into her hidden pockets.

“BOOM.” The door slammed inward and in poured the grunts; the soldiers of Vasily. They quickly escorted her out, forming a protective circle around her and their boss as they wound through the maze-like halls of the prison. Any guards who tried to stop them either fatally failed, or were forced behind cover until their passed, making their trip out seem like a blur. Soon enough, they left the tan and white interior for the garage, where Vasily’s technicians were working on hotwiring the door open.

Anna mourned the lack of sunlight. She’d hoped she’d be able to get at least a few rays of it before she hopped into the SUV, but not today.

Instead, Vasily heaved her into the back of their SUV - the one she’d been in far too many times than she’d liked - before shooting at the guards following them.

“ _ Where’s that door, Ivar? _ ”

“ _ Just a minute!...” _

_ “We don’t have a-” _

_ “Done!” _ The door rolled back and open, allowing Daniil to hit the gas and speed out, Vasily slammed the back doors closed and tried to breath slowly, wincing when the car ran over a bump in the road and he was slammed painfully into his seat.

Red was blooming from his side, a bullet having managed to just clip him, he snarled and pressed his hand to the spot, grabbing a package of gauze and tearing into it with his teeth.

Anna watched with only cold hope that he’d finally keel over - human empathy dampened down by the knowledge that this man had killed countless people, and was primed to kill her family.

“ _ What are you staring at, you fat little pig?” _ He snapped at her, and she looked back to his growling face, all feigned kindness replaced by his true, real, anger. 

She rather liked the anger more than his cold, beady, little eyes - though his words stung even after the millionth time.

Vasily groaned and leaned against the back of his seat, hissing every time they hit another bump. Anna looked away from him, towards Daniil’s hulking from in the driver’s seat. Daniil, though she still resented him, was always the kinder of the two - didn’t really hurt her, didn’t yell or insult - and she appreciated him just the slightest more for it. However, Vasily wasn’t one to be ignored.

“ _ You fat idiot, you ruined everything!” _

Anna avoided his gaze, knowing she’d have tells flickering all over her face, as readable as a book, but her surged forward and slammed her back in her chair.

“ _ I should’ve killed you back there, instead of saving you. Should’ve done what my uncle refuses to do.” _

His Russkiy was harsh in her face, flinging spittle everywhere. When he pinched a roll on her side harshly with manicured nails, she felt like she’d been stabbed…

“ _ Little piggy as you are though, you just ate up everything we gave you, food, housing, information…”  _ He looked like he might just try and strangle her right there and then. “ _ And you went and  _ **_lied_ ** _ to us. Right. To our.  _ **_Faces_ ** _. Your files weren’t anywhere in that little house of yours, and we had to burn it to the ground - just in case.” _

She nearly gasped at that, snapping up to look at him.

His smug smile was fox-like, even including a pearly-white canine just peeking out from behind deathly-pale lips. He slouched back into his own seat across from her, cursing at himself as he felt his wound again. He sighed and tilted his head at her, eyes as sharp and cruel as icicles

“ _ I wonder what your little crush thinks of you now.” _

It was a simple statement; a thought out loud, but Anna grit her teeth and held back a shiver. She stared back out the front window again, counting how many turns they took, and how many signs they passed, trying to ignore him and her own thoughts

‘You failed him.

‘He hates you by now.’

She felt almost like crying with all the guilt that slammed down over her shoulders again. Days in near isolation at the prison had given her too much time to think of his face as she’d been dragged away - first from their date, then to prison. One thought though, made her bite her tongue to keep silent and get back at herself.

‘ _ They’re not going to save you _ .’

 

* * *

 

There wasn’t much time to get to the prison, but luckily, the idiots had chosen obvious vehicles and skipped getting license plates, making it easy to track them.

“Where next, Lex?”

“Lean left, exits onto the memorial highway - I95.”

Nankin made a sharp turn, cutting off a few cars without a care in the world.

“You’re sure this is gonna be the right place?”

Lex looked up from his laptop with a pale, but nervously determined face.

“That SUV makes stops there all the time, not enough to be clockwork, but enough times to make it their most-likely escape route, especially since they just broken into - and out of - a  _ federal prison _ . It’s not like anywhere local would let them hitch a ride.”

Joshua nodded, “Next? And how did you know that anyway?”

“Stay here - I’ll let you know when you need to dump onto Mills Drive. And I know because…” He tried to think of an explanation.

Stiles gave him one.

“He was stalking her after their date.”

Lex glared right back at his friend. “I was not! I was checking out that ‘uncle’ of hers. He creeped me the fuck out…” Slouching in his seat, Lex went back onto checking traffic cams for the SUV and its entourage. They continued on the route he’d estimated, though at faster speeds - obviously - and with less care for the idea of “lanes”.

It felt like everyone went silent after that, and they did for the most part. Terri and Stiles talked quietly in the back, and Nankin made sure that Haisley was following them, but no one pushed Lex to speak. He was too focussed to risk it.

Terri watched him and whispered to her fiance, “You think he’ll be alright? If she is a spy?”

Stiles looked up to her, searching her face and seeing worry for their friend; for a brother. He looked back over to the hacker in question.

“Maybe, but I’m not sure he’ll be the same.”

“How’s that?”

Stiles paused and put his gun back away.

“I mean, those two were pretty close, literally  _ and  _ figuratively.” He shook his head, “I worry what he’ll think of humanity if she is a traitor. I mean, he dealt with enough with the Olivia fiasco, but-” He leaned back. “This wasn’t a fling for him, this was one of those rare ‘oh shit its you’-at-first-sight things. Like, they were actual friends before she left. I’m worried as to what’ll happen if it turns out that all of it was an act, or worse, if she  _ chose  _ him for said act - lied in that letter and to his face, stringing him along...”

Terri nodded in agreement, feeling the same worries as her sweetheart, and leaned against him for the long drive, watching and hoping.

 

It was another two hours before something decent pinged on Lex’s monitor. A call from the SUV’s area to the private airport they were aiming for.

Shit.

“Hey, Gandalf. Step on it. They’re prepping a plane.” Lex told Joshua as he sat up properly and started to try and hack into the airport’s security cameras, and then into their records to find the right plane.

Joshua only raised an eyebrow and muttered a little about ‘not being  _ that _ old’ before he slammed his foot to the gas pedal and weaved around traffic.

Minutes later they were pulling onto the straightaway towards the airport - with everyone but Nankin white-knuckling a safety handle above them.

“There! Up ahead!”

Lex frantically pointed out the SUV caravan miles ahead, specks in the distance, before going back to trying to call the air-traffic control tower as they whipped pas the great green trees of Virginia, and farm after farm on either side.

The Remo private airport was in the middle of nowhere and right on the water, not exactly as they’d expected. But, whoever was supposed to act as the tower wasn’t listening, and Lex was beginning to lose his last shreds of patience.

He turned back to the pair in the back, “Ready? You guys have to hit the ground running to catch them.”

“No problem, kid.” Stiles grinned, adrenaline rising.

Joshua handed Lex the radio speaker, letting him order the other SUVs to be ready to jump and shoot.

A minute later, they’d caught up. Everyone trained to fight leapt out of their SUVs - all armed and armored - as soon as they screeched to a halt, then rushed for cover as the Russians spotted them and started shooting.

Stiles managed to dive for some cover closer to his target, watching as a man who seemed to be the leader dragged Anna to a private seaplane - a DeHavilland Turbine Otter - inside the open hangar.

The thing was pretty large, big enough to fit every one of the Russians if they weren’t stopped. So, Stiles put the leader in his sights.

Hold.

Aim.

Pull.

There was a ‘BANG’ and then the man stumbled, dragging Anna with him as he screamed in agony and clutched his leg.

Damn it - he’d missed.

Stiles kept firing at him, trying to aim, but the bastard put Anna in front of him as a human shield, then fired back and forced him back behind cover. The plane powered up, propellers whirring and roaring - Terri tried firing at it from  _ her _ spot, but too many bullets whizzed overhead; pinning her in place.

This wasn’t going to be a fight they could win…

 

* * *

 

Anna saw her chance to escape the moment she saw Stiles duck behind an old car near the hangar. She saw it as soon as she felt Vasily stumble, and heard him cry out with the excruciating pain of being shot right in the leg.

But she never took it.

She knew that her family would lose all value if she got shot by Vasily in his current rage, and her family would be picked off until she returned to them if she managed to run. The thoughts were cut short though, since Vasily was too high on adrenaline to notice the pain for long, he was back as soon as he caught his breath. The prince grabbed her arm hard enough to bruise purple later, and swung her around to his chest, making her yelp. He kept her clutched there as he stumbled back to the plane. As soon as they made it in, bullets were pinging metallically off the body of the plane and he shoved her back so he could make it into the pilot’s chair.

Daniil followed soon after another few remaining grunts, catching Anna as she fell back, confusedly holding her as she turned them to the door, shouting out to Stiles and Terri as they halted fire - their faces looking so defeated.

“Latvia!”

Daniil realized what she was doing a second too late and tried to pry her from the doorway as the seaplane pulled away, starting to catch air and bounce on the water.

“They’re going to Latvia!” She screamed to her friends with all her might, tearing her throat hoarse with her desperation.

They were her last words as she felt a sharp pain on the side of her head, blacking out after one of the soldiers pistol-whipped her.

The agents on the shore could only watch helplessly as she slumped in the brute’s arms, was pulled inside, and the door shut. And off flew the plane, soaring over the coastal waters and up into the clouds.

 

Then, they were gone.

  
  



	7. Cookie Crumbs

_ Last Christmas: _

“No, I promise you, steganography is  _ still _ the worst!” Lex laughed as he chowed down on a Christmastime pizza slice.

“But what if it’s in an unscannable object, huh? What about then? Like, a sculpture or a mirror?”

“Then it’s not really steganography!”

“Alright then, fine!” She stuck her tongue out at him before breaking into a fit of laughter. Lex couldn’t help but grin with her.

“What’s the best type of code then, little Miss Artist?”

She didn’t skip a beat, “One-time pads and groups of three letters.  **Or** -” She stole a loose pepperoni from him and gave him a smug smile. “Use a machine, like the Soviets did. Fialka and Albatross were the names I think - ‘got declassified last year.”

Lex was both fascinated by her, and vaguely confused by her answer.

She was an artist, a replicator, and a forger - so how did she know all of that right off the bat? However, just then, their attention was suddenly drawn away from each other and towards the door.

“I brought dessert!”

Lex and Anna looked up from their discussion at their table to see Joshua carrying in trays of food with Stiles, who took a moment to give his superior an exhausted glare as he hefted in the larger amount of food.

As soon as the pair started to set down their prizes, everyone in the office began to circle the dessert table like a frenzy of sharks - Stiles actually having to slap someone’s hand at one point as they tried snitching a cupcake from him.

Lex shrugged and looked back to Anna, to continue their discussion, but when he turned to her, she didn’t turn back with him. Instead, he caught Anna watching the quickly disappearing sweets longingly; wistfully. She was leaning on her elbow, cheek squishing up as she rested on it. She sighed, and finally turned back.

Lex raised an eyebrow, “You want some?”

“Oh…” Anna seemed to shrink into her seat, “No- No, I’m good… It all looks  _ really  _ good, but I probably shouldn’t.” She turned back to her sketchbook, doodling some more.

Lex frowned at how downtrodden she looked, why should she not? It was Christmas after all, prime time for stuffing yourself full of food? But then he also noticed how she would glance over at the other women and shrink even further as she sketched lithe ballerinas, dancing across the pages.

Oh...

“What do you think looks the best, at least? I’m gonna grab some.”

Anna looked up at him, eyes a shimmering silver, then looked back to the table.

“The German chocolate cake, the apple pie, and the fudge looks great, there’s a bunch of tea cookies too you might like.” She seemed to brighten a little as she talked, and it made the man smile with her.

When she finished, Lex nodded in acknowledgment and disappeared into the crowd. When he returned It was with two tall plates of desserts to their nearly-hidden table. Anna laughed at the sight, until he set one plate nonchalantly in front of her and the other in front of himself as he sat down again.

She stared at it, and then at him.

“You know you didn’t have to do that… right?”

Lex smiled and plopped a santa hat on her head - he’d snagged it from the table and thought she’d like it.

“I know, but I also know you wanted it. So, I got it!” He started devouring a gingerbread man. “What are friends for?”

He didn’t notice the blush to her cheeks, and the near-shocked look on her face - amazed he thought of her as a real friend - before she started on her dessert plate as well.

“I still think that Caesar cipher is worse than steganography.”

Lex facepalmed.

 

* * *

 

_ Present day: _

Lex dragged his hands down his face, groaning.

Terri sat across from him, and nearly passed out onto her laptop at least twice in two minutes.

Stiles munched on his bagel as he glared at the meeting-room projection.

“And you’re  _ sure _ that you can’t-”

“Yes!-” Lex snapped, before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, voice softening. “ -Yes, I’m very sure that I can’t track it. They’ve got some pretty complex signal-jammers, and I haven’t been able to find them since they took off.”

Stiles leaned back and turned to look at Lex rather than a wall filled with a confusing map of planes around the world - all except the one they needed to find.

“Then what do we do? Go search all of Latvia?”

“No, no… It’s more likely they’re going to stop somewhere along the coast to switch planes, the plane they left on is a…” He rubbed at his eyes and peered at his notes for a second, “A DeHavilland Turbine Otter seaplane. Those things can fly far, but only for so long. And  _ definitely  _ not to Latvia.”

“I thought you contacted all the airports?” Stiles finished off his bagel, then made a face, as if not finding them was to be expected.

“Then again, they’re mafia. It’s not like they can’t pay someone off or beat someone up.”

Lex downed the rest of his tea, exhausted and hoping for a spark of caffeine. It’d been nearly half a day since the Russian group - named  _ Bespredel _ , they knew now - had disappeared out of that tiny airport.

Then, a blink.

An agent sent him a channel number and a plane flight, so Lex pulled up the channel on the little meeting-room TV, and as soon as he did, he dove into searching for the plane. Stiles and Terri both perked up as they heard the TV turn to a news station, and a reporter speaking.

“-A man killed in this very airport. Police say it was no accident, and that the plane - now missing - was likely the reason behind the murder. The owner of the plane is the currently missing ‘Basil Wolfcale’. We turn to the local police chief for more on this-”

“Found it!”

Lex cheered, before tapering off as he noticed his friends not whooping with him, and also hearing the TV  at last.

“I found the plane they ‘stole’. It’s a private jet that Anna’s handler owns, and right now the flight logs chart a course for Spain. It doesn’t specify, but that  _ certainly _ narrows our field of search!”

Terri noted down the alias from the reporter, and then looked back to Stiles and Lex. “Why would they stop there though, and why let us know? I mean, she said they were headed to Latvia...”

Stiles spoke up, swirling his coffee around in the mug. “They might be planning to stay only a little while, force us to keep looking for them until they’ve left and it’s too late.  **Or** , alternatively, They’re just stupid.” They all laughed a bit at that, morale lightening. “I mean, I hit that kid  _ for sure _ , so he’s likely not the brightest bulb right now.”

“Guys?”

The foreign voice halted the laughter, and froze the trio. They turned to see Joshua poking his head into the room.

“They’re calling you to the evidence room - agents found something.”

The three scrambled up and out of the room, trying to speed-walk down the hall with papers galore in their arms.

Minutes later, all four of them were crowded around a small, sad, unused napkin in an evidence bag. There was no DNA aside from Anna’s on it, but there  _ was  _ writing. However, the writing was in code, and in Russian. 

‘ _ Сся млИ юьм ъхк Рсп мшл Гмэ рсх лОя сшз _ ’ was written on the box in scrawled handwriting; rushed strokes only saved by the fact that it was a fancy fabric napkin.

“It’s in code, I think.” One of the younger members of their team piped up. “We’re trying to translate it, but our computers aren’t picking anything up when we run it through the more complex decoders.”

“Did you try a Caesar decoder?” Lex looked over to them, earning a few confused looks at his suggestion of such a technically-simple code from such an advanced group. 

He sighed a little, forgetting that she hadn’t exactly been the most extroverted person. “We had a talk on the best and worst types of codes last Christmas, Caesar cipher was what she thought was the worst.”

There was a collective “Ohh-h-h-h” from the team. Lex rolled his eyes.

“Go ahead and try it out. And Derek? I need Anna’s laptop, I think I found some evidence that might unlock those firewalled files.”

Soon enough, the room was again a hubbub of activity, as some looked for the laptop, most debated how far the Caesar cipher went, and others tried to argue how it couldn’t be such a simple code.

Lex found an empty desk to work at and waited, hoping that Anna was okay - alive even - right then. She’d given them precious information, so who knew what was in the cards for her?

All that he could do now was search and pray.

 

* * *

 

“Fa-THUMP.”

Her body slumped to the floor and she gasped for a semblance of oxygen. Anna felt the corners of her mind growing dangerously fuzzy, and her vision begin to dim around the edges. She still felt it though when a small dribble of blood dropped over her eye, forcing her to remember her head-wound.

Vasily didn’t seem to care as he dragged her back up, cursing her name all the while.

Anna was tied to the chair tightly, as if he expected her to attempt an escape. That idea, she knew, was only a paranoid delusion of the Prince’s at this point. Perhaps she would run if she knew her family wasn’t in their grasp, or at least that they were dead. But she couldn’t risk that sort of boldness, not now.

Her head spun again as he slapped her, attempting to get her waning attention.

“ _ You stupid- You insolent-! How could you do that? You risked everyone here - you risked the future of Russia telling them about our goal! Do you  _ **_want_ ** _ us to kill your little family?” _

He snatched her chin up to face him with a vice-like grip. She winced as he caught her bruises, but still managed to give him a venomous glare.

“ _You do know there is a_ ** _point_** _to your suffering don’t you? Don’t you remember?_ _We’re not mere petty criminals, little pig_!” He sharply pokes a roll on her side again, digging into a kidney and making her gasp with the added pain. 

“ _ Really? I could’ve sworn you were just some mafia - last I looked.” _ She managed to rasp out at him before trying to nip his hand, forcing him to let her jaw go, although he gave her a swift slap before he skulked back to pacing.

“ _ You threaten your mother country, Sokolov. We’re trying to fix what the West ruined; trying bring Russia back to its former glory!”  _ He snarled in her face. “ _ Now where are the documents? -And not the blackmail we found littered in your walls. Where did you hide them?!”  _ Vasily looks ready to maul her, his lip curled into a snarl and eyes as cold as the Russian tundra, and even though she knew his uncle would punish him severely for something like that, she still felt the shiver slide down her spine at his threatening presence.

“ _ I told you, it was in the house.-” _

_ “Well it certainly wasn’t when we got there!” _

_ “Then you must not have looked hard enough.”  _ She leaned into his face as well, daring him to harm her; to try and kill her.

“ _ Why you  _ **_little-!_ ** _ ” _ He wound his arm back, ready to send her into next week with his already bruised fist.

“ _ Vasily!” _ A giant hand wraps itself around the Prince’s, holding him back from beating her further.

“ _ Daniil, how dare you- Let me go!” _ The younger man tried to peel his hand out of the other’s grip, only to be shoved away from Anna.

“ _ You are in enough trouble, Vasily Volkov, and I know you don’t want to risk angering the  _ Pakhan  _ further. Go pack, I will take her to the transport.” _

The boy - how much of a boy he looked then, huffing red and stomping his foot like an infuriated toddler rather than some evil, conniving, man - only spent a moment in hesitation, before growling at both of them and storming into the attached hotel room.

Anna barely noticed. Since her most dangerous captor was gone, she relaxed, and she found herself finally blacking out - or sleeping, she couldn’t tell.

Daniil could only sigh at the sight, before grabbing a towel from the bathroom and returning to clean her up. If only she knew, if only she knew...

 

* * *

 

The airport was as loud as it could ever be, it seemed to Lex. People had to nearly yell as they spoke over the other, equally loud, strands of conversation in the high-ceilinged building. Lex would’ve normally hated the amount of noise, seeing as it distracted him from his work, but considering he was just about to get on another airplane, he was mildly thankful for it, zoning out as Terri tried to talk to Reese on the payphone, and Stiles took a nap next to him.

“Yes, sir. We’ll make sure to call you as soon as we get to the location…” A pause as he said something again, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yes, we’re sure we need to. If we didn’t think it was necessary, we’d be back at home-base… Yes, sir. Goodbye.” Terri put back the phone and sighed before walking back to Lex and Stiles.

Lex’s bony elbow snapped his sleeping neighbor wide awake, and right on time too, as Lex saw their plane land on his screen, and the voice over the intercom called them to board. Terri couldn’t help but chuckle at Stiles’ bleary face as he woke up and glared at their hacker. Lex just looked to Terri with a nervous grin.

“Ready?”

“Yep.”

He shut down his laptop, putting it back in his computer bag, and stuck the USB back into it’s secret compartment before standing again.

A nervous laugh, “Let’s do this!”

  
  
  



	8. Midnight Rendezvous

“You have  _ got _ to be kidding me.”

Motel management waited nervously outside of the room - fidgeting and shuffling their feet - while the Spanish police stood outside, stiff as statues. Inside the room, blood stains sprinkled the walls and pooled on the floor; evidence of some sort of brutal interrogation Lex hoped, rather than a murder.

A new CIA agent entered the room, one of the ones that had been stationed there in Spain, and the first one to be sent to the location as soon as the code was cracked - the note revealing the  _ Bespredel _ hideaway to be this very hotel in Ceuta.

Lex stood to the side with Terri as Stiles helped investigate the place and its adjacent room. Left tapping his foot since he had nothing to do but be intensely worried and extremely frustrated. There was so much to take in, and yet, no clues from Anna, or any sort of message attempt.

“Agent Lowell, Agent… Lex.” The assigned agent still struggled with the fact that he didn’t know Lex’s last name. It felt strange to call the man holding all the secret information by a nickname.

Lex and Terri turned to look at him, raising their left eyebrows in sync.

The new agent didn’t like how oddly creepy that felt. “The- erm… The police blocking off the building were wondering how much longer we’re going to be?”

Stiles finally walked over to his partners and the other man. “No indication as to where they went next. There’s evidence of people staying in the rooms but nothing much past… that.” They all took a second to observe the Forensics people snapping photos and swabbing parts of the blood stains before continuing.

The other agent piped up again. “Should I tell the cops they can stand down, then?”

“Sure, but get on the phone with their department and have a few stationed here for a while. Then go talk to the suits and have this room locked off until Forensics is done.” Stiles motioned with a jut of his chin towards the small cluster of jittery managers and supervisors by the door. The young man clearly restrained himself from sighing. He knew how bad these people could be when told they’d have to shut down a room, let alone be forced to keep a police presence for any length of time in their “nice” hotel.

The “nice” hotel that, until just that afternoon, had contained a terrorist cell and a captive woman.

Stiles shooed him off, and then turned back to the trio.

“We’re screwed, there’s not even a note  _ scratched  _ into anything.” Stiles sighed, massaging his temple.

Lex could only pinch the bridge of his nose and slump his head.

“So we have to now, there’s no way around it?” Terri groaned.

Stiles nodded her.

Lex gnawed on his thumbnail, mind whirring and spinning, hoping for some other idea to pop up. “Do we, really? Isn’t there any other way to find her, without breaking into every hideout they have? What she gave us might not even be the full list! We could end up driving them so deep into hiding that we don’t find her until she’s a corpse, sleeping with the fishes of some river or lake or-” He was getting too wound up and Stiles grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.

“We’ll find her. She still has a lot of information, they couldn’t hurt her just yet.”

Lex stared pointedly at the bloodstains around the room. “We’re too late for that.” 

All of them felt a snarl of guilt twist around the tense air. But then, Lex sighed and put the suitcase under his arm.

“We may be too late to get her home unharmed,  _ but, _ you’re right. They can’t kill her yet.”

Stiles led them out and down the stairs, back out into the sun and salty sea air and past the annoyed officials and managers. Then, it was right back into the CIA van to call the other agents at their outposts.

Lex was dialing up as soon as the door closed behind them. The first agents, stationed near the target in Italy, picked up easily.

“This is Music Box. What’s up?”

“Music Box, this is Maestro. Collie is loose.”

“Yes, sir. On it.”

The phone went dead, call ended, and Lex was onto the next - the outpost in France - keen on maneuvering the  _ Bespredel _ into the trap they'd set in Latvia, but also hoping with all his heart that this didn’t go sideways.

 

* * *

 

When her vision returned, the bag torn off her head, Anna felt her heart sink.

There was a new scene out her only window - a gift she hadn’t expected - and a cooler breeze sweeping across her throbbing face. She watched, dazed, as Daniil tossed the ball of fabric to one of the  _ Byki  _ grunts, before leaving with them down the stairs to the safehouse dining room. 

What worried her was how far away from any major civilization she was. It was evening, and the farmland she could see from her chair stretched out to the horizon, occasionally bordered by trees or rickety wood fences, or dotted by stables and warehouses.

There was nothing out there.

Only the rising crescent moon kept an eye on her as she felt her brain finally returning to full-power - mind whirring about a single dilemma.

Leave, or stay?

She was rooted to the spot by the fear for her family - the family she hadn’t seen in over a decade, and whose voices faded slowly from her memory. However, she’d just ruined everything for  _ Bespredel _ . She’d leaked their hideouts, their names, their travel plans… 

And what if they didn’t even have her family? What if the missing finger she’d been sent, hidden in a smart red gift box on her front doorstep, had never belonged to either of her parents? She’d thought of these possibilities for hours before, sitting on the edge of her bed, back in Virginia. But now she’d trashed every reason to keep her alive, and all cover she might’ve had was blown sky-high.

Perhaps leaving was the better idea, perhaps she had only herself to look out for now.

She watched as the lights under the door dimmed with the lengthening of the night and the rising of the moon into the clear, starry, sky. Anna felt exhausted with lack of sleep, the pain, but also the weight of her plan on her shoulders. Risking an escape meant that she could fail, hurt her family, or succeed and lead to their demises.

But a nagging thought kept whispering in the back of her mind. The question of what if she made it? What if she escaped and found a way home, free to search for her parents without threats dangling over her bowed head.

Platinum blonde hair turned silver as the moon stared back at her.

Suddenly she felt her soul leave her body, just briefly, as the door swung wide open on creaking hinges, and heavy footsteps shook the floor. Anna tried to close her eyes softly, to hide her fear from the intruder and calm her mind.

“ _ Anna _ .”

Daniil. She felt her soul return and her body relax at the sound of his deep voice.

She looked up at him again, her grey eyes the color of iron as she watched him near her. His eyes, a similar slate grey, looked worriedly at her.

“ _ What, Daniil? Why wake me?” _

“ _ We move out tomorrow, to Latvia. The Americans have started to compromise our safehouses.” _ His tone seemed almost curious.

She turned to look out the window again, refraining from shivering as the night breezes got colder and colder, since she’d been put in a thin tee and jeans for travelling.

He moved to look out the same window.

“ _ He’s very angry. I worry for you.” _

_ “You always do, Daniil. You are strange like that.” _

They shared a look again, and his eyes narrowed at her with a warning.

“ _ He grows murderous, Anna. More so than I’ve ever seen him before. _ ”

Her heart lurched. He scratched at his head of greying blonde hair, cut close in a military crew cut.

“ _ I will try and keep you safe, as much as I can. But he’s going mad.” _

Turning to leave, he nearly made it out the door before she said one last thing.

“ _ Are they sleeping well at least?” _ Her voice was a tremulous near-whisper.

The older man - her kindest captor and the only protector she’d really known - smiled at her with tobacco-stained teeth.

“ _ Yes. They sleep as deeply as babes _ .”

Then he was gone, and the moon had left her window frame to sluggishly rise above the safehouse, leaving her completely alone to work. What use was she to her parents as a dead woman? There was too much at risk to stay behind and hope for freedom, she had to take it for herself.

Recalling her childhood lessons with her godfather, she began to maneuver herself out of the chair. The knots, she knew, were too tight to pull apart and too thick to thin down in just a few hours, but they could be moved around if she could withstand the burning of the rough material against her already sore skin.

Luckily she was so filled with adrenaline that she barely registered the pain as she broke the armrests of the chair, quickly freeing her hands so she could reach her ankles - they were both bound together and then held still by the chair legs. After a few more minutes, her feet were free, and she shed the cords with joy. Before working to free her waist, she took the briefest of moments to listen past her heartbeat for any footsteps; anyone who may have heard her.

Nothing.

Soon enough Anna was free, and she had to use all of her will to stifle a burst of maniacal giggling. Free. She was going to be free.

Five more minutes, and she’d managed to make her way from her window ledge, to the one a level below her. She didn’t dare breathe as she twisted her way out of eyesight, while still climbing down and hoping the guards at the front of the house wouldn’t come to check on the strange rustling.

Then it was glorious silence, grass between her toes, and tears of joy.

She was going to do this, she would make it, she would find her way home and save her family.

She dashed up the hill, away along the fields and fence lines, running as fast as she could to get herself a head start. Then she slowed to walk as she made it to the main road.

Exhaustion had her limbs slowly turning to lead as she made her way along the blacktop that stained her feet, and her mind numbed into a narrow focus as she walked.

Late evening turned to midnight, and not a single car passed her as she slapped herself awake. She had to make it to a town, make it somewhere where she could get to a computer, or get some shoes and a bite to eat. But she knew she needed to make it as far as she could out of France first. Soon it was too much, and she slumped against a tree for at least a moment of rest.

Midnight turned to dawn and she was frightened awake by a hand on her shoulder. Both the stranger and herself leapt away from each other, and it took a moment for her to recognize them.

Or - even better - not recognize them.

A young couple, both around her age, stood before her in concerned shock. The woman was the one who’d awoken her, and decided to cautiously step forward again. Her voice was kind and soft, and she spoke French with a twinge of German hiding behind it. She was Swiss… 

“ _ Ma’am, are you okay? Do we need to call an ambulance? Police?” _

Anna shook her head, calling them would mean  _ Bespredel  _ could find her, and could scatter further into hiding. “ _ Thank you. No.” _

“ _ Would you like to ride with us? _ ”

“ _ Where are you going _ ?”

“ _ Back to Geneva, Switzerland _ .”

Her boyfriend didn’t protest the offer, he just hung by his sweetheart’s side in cautiously protective stance.

Anna looked back and forth between them, observing, watching for anything to reveal their true, darker, intentions. There was nothing but concern within them, and a genuine want to help her.

With the most grateful smile, Anna nodded.

“ _ I would love to ride with you _ .”

 

* * *

 

Lex swore vehemently, rubbing at his crusty, sleepy, eyes as he got out of bed. He tared at the door, framed by the grey, dawn, light that slipped into his hotel room at the ungodly hour of 4 am.

Lex peeked through the peephole, only to see his two friends out front in the cold morning air. A minute later and both Stiles and Terri were in his room, being cussed at by the now grouchy hacker.

“Why the hell are you two up?- Okay no, no, don’t answer that.” He massaged his face with frustration and exhaustion, not even recognizing that they were in their travel gear again. “What I mean is what the hell are you doing waking  **_me_ ** up?”

Terri brushed past and opened up Lex’s laptop while Stiles took the brunt of the yelling, before motioning to it and standing back.  _ Bespredel  _ communications, ones that Anna’s files had allowed the CIA access to, were blowing up. He could barely translate each message in the chat room before a new one popped up and took its place.

“Holy shit…”

Stiles sat on the end of the bed. “Folks over at HQ say that they’re looking for someone.”

Lex straightened and froze instantly, terrified. “Crap… Did they find us? Did they find one of our agents?”

He didn’t see Terri begin to grin to his left until she spoke up. “No, Lex, we’re fine. C'mon, Poker Face, don’t tease him, he’s already jittery as it is.” Lex relaxed just a bit, before frowning deeply in confusion and turning back to Stiles.

A wide smile split across Stiles face at last, and Lex waited on the tips of his toes for his answer.

“Someone escaped the main  _ Bespredel  _ escort party. An ‘essential and dangerous asset’.”

Lex’s tired mind clicked the pieces together surprisingly quickly, and he clapped and whooped and spun in his spot. “YES.”

But then he turned right back to his friends, eyes narrowed and serious. “You’re sure it’s her? You’re sure it’s not some other agent of theirs?”

Both nodded back to him.

Terri tossed him his travel gear, “We triple-checked. She escaped from a safehouse in France last night, guards can’t find her anywhere. Their boss is losing it on there.” She motioned back to the computer.

All of them felt a little spooked when a his computer rang with a “Warning!” pop-up just as she did.

Then it repeated the alarm, blaring at them angrily, like it felt it was being ignored.

Lex scrambled for it, sliding into his seat and opening up the coding like he was cracking open a book. Someone had attempted to hack into his computer through various soft spots, only to be kicked back out when they hit his firewalls. He was about to remark about “damn kids”, but then he noticed something odd about the coding of the attempts. The type of hacking the other person had used had left remnants in the computer, somehow branding pieces with what they left behind in six-digit chunks.

_ enigma. lexsdb. sflrde. vxohqr. kfalez. apbmlv. liehch. phaplu. lijjqf. _

Lex could easily decipher the first few clues, but the words following - unsolved and scrambled into unintelligibility - were a mystery.

But then an old memory hit him about the head again:

_ “What’s the best type of code then, little Miss Artist?” _

_ “Use a machine, like the Soviets did. Fialka and Albatross were the names I think…” _

Lex carefully copied down the coding, causing the pair of friends that hovered over his shoulders to raise their brows in confusion, seeing as they couldn’t pick anything out from the lines of nonsensical letters, numbers, and seemingly random symbols blinking on his screen. But then Lex was wildly shoving a piece of paper up at them. He was grinning wider than they had been, excited and impatient for them to notice.

“We need to get this over to our code-breakers as soon as we can. And do we have any more clean burn-phones?”

“Yeah - Yeah we should, let me check…” Terri ran over to Lex’s bed and shivered before sticking her hand underneath it, and reaching up to run her hand along the bedframe. The boys watched her and then jumped as she let out a triumphant “a-HA!”

Stiles caught the clunky, old, prepaid, thing for Lex and then handed it off for him to make the call. Lex felt his hands shaking just a bit as he tossed papers around on his table to find the right phone number. He ignored the blinding light of the rising sun through the window blinds as he called and read out the message.

“- That’s all, but make sure to use one of those old Enigma code maker-breakers. And try using my birthday for the rings and positions.”

Luckily, specificity meant a quick call and a quick answer to be awaited, and by the time the world was as awake as they were, the three were packed to go and out the door.

_ I'm free. Watch for the square cross. _

Lex tried his hardest to calm down as they waited in the airport, off to the land of mountains, chocolate, and expensive watches - all while internally panicking about the flight and about how Anna was doing.

Off to Geneva it was.

 

* * *

 

Geneva was lovely in August, Anna decided after arriving there in the wee hours of the morning.

It’d been months since she’d seen a real calendar, and even longer since she’d been this free; this unmonitored and unbothered. Of course, Anna wasn’t reckless, she knew was only as free as she was inconspicuous and kept out of the sight of any whistleblowers. Luckily, a flowy and flattering dress, accompanied by a large-brimmed straw sun-hat was the perfect disguise. She blended in with both tourists and locals alike, and her face and form were hidden enough to make herself scarce in a crowd quickly enough to escape anyone suspicious.

She knew she’d likely never be able to thank Tham - the sweet young women who had helped her alongside her boyfriend - properly for her eternal kindness. The girl had driven her to Switzerland, helped her get a hotel room, and had given her nearly half her suitcase of clothes - Anna had tried to refuse after the third shirt, but Tham had insisted, and Anna couldn’t resist the puppy-eyes her rescuer had given her.

The problem now though, was she didn’t know how long she would be forced to hide there in the Switzerland. Would she have to forge papers, seek asylum, what was her future now? Sure, she’d attempted to ping Lex, sweet and silly Lex, but she had no idea if he’d gotten her message. The same Lex she wasn’t sure still cared about what happened to her or not - the thought was depressing, but just as soon as it cropped up, a fond memory stifled it again.

She remembered the times she’d called out sick, and he and his friends checked in on her, even bringing over takeout when they could. It was a form of kindness she’d rarely known until then, and Anna knew that that kindness wasn’t something fleeting. Maybe he wouldn’t be the first person she saw when she got back home, but he wouldn’t be cruel and cold to her...

But by the evening after her midnight escape, Anna was awoken from a well-deserved nap by her phone alerting her about an email from… The CIA?

_ From Lex. _

She squealed, before dampening it behind her hands but continuing her grinning. The email was short, and disappeared from her inbox - no evidence left behind - before she could do it herself, but the message inspired her with hope. It was just a simple “on our way, be safe”, but Anna was flooded with relief after reading it.

She was going home. She would see her friends again. She’d be getting as far away from  _ Bespredel _ as she could - far from their pain and their manipulations.

Anna knew what she had to do, and she was as fast as a flash as she packed up some things and power-walked to the closest computer cafe, trying to make it there and to a computer before they closed up for the night. She wove through the crowds of the evening rush like she’d been born in New York, making it in record time for a woman still nursing well-hidden wounds and sore-as-hell legs. But this was too important to let her own self slow her down.

There was an hour left until the cafe closed for the night when she managed to get there and grab one of the bulky computers. She had to work quickly.

Sitting at the desk in the back corner, Anna repeated her process from that morning, though in a better state of mind - less frantic, less twitchy. She slipped past the cafe firewalls and coding to then attempt to ping Lex’s secured computer again.

She branded her message - coded of course - into the layers of his laptop, detailing where to meet her exactly, and what she’d look like.

“Excuse me ma’am?”

Anna nearly leapt to the ceiling as a young woman tapped her shoulder. The poor girl looked mortified to have frightened her.

“ _ Hallo- _ Hello!” English, back to English. “Do you need the computer?” She slid her fingers over the keys to switch the screen back to her cover-tab.

The woman looked confused by her behavior, but seemed to shrug it off. “Yeah, but I can wait.. How long are you going to be?”

“Just a minute. Do you mind?” Her smile was sweet and shy, she made sure to shrink herself, to try and get the stranger to move so that they couldn’t see the screen.

The red-head nodded and left to get some coffee, though Anna noted that she instantly whipped out her phone… 

Anna made herself scarce, logging right out of the computer, and wiping away all traces that she’d done or said anything. All she gave the other girl was a wave and a brief “it’s open” before leaving to the dark, orange, light of the evening, away on a strange route back to her hotel room.

She was careful, so extremely careful to see if she was being followed.

So careful that she never noticed the new “flower” on her hat, nor the new hotel neighbors that moved in just as she arrived.

Instead, Anna just made sure she had her escape route ready, put all her things away, and slept again - curled up in a ball in the room’s lone armchair with a pick-pocketed pocket-knife resting securely in her hand.

The family a room over put their kids to bed before settling down to watch her room’s video feed.

They were ending this soon. The pig and her friends would be either dead or captured by noon tomorrow. Now they just needed the rest of the assets of their party to arrive...

  
  



	9. The Case of Car v. Stairs

The sun of the next day felt like it took forever to even rise through the blinds in both hotels. Lex woke from a restless glorified nap to wander around and wait for the continental breakfast buffet to open up - while Anna was across the city, waking painfully from her contorted sleeping position and taking the next half hour to stretch her muscles and apply concealer to her face. Both were anxious about the meet-up, fearing intervention, or worse: assassination.

Terri had had to argue with the director himself the night before about the meeting. He and Quinn were understandably cautious about the risks of going in so soon, without enough backup available and the site relatively un-sweeped for anything dangerous or suspicious. Quinn also voiced a concern about Anna’s loyalties seeing as she was arranging a meeting rather than searching them out. 

“I don’t want you or anyone else’s brains getting blown out because you all decided to rush on in there!” The bald man had nearly snarled at her over the crackle of the phone. “Switzerland is tolerating your presence there, but they’re a neutral country, and they’ll kick your asses out faster than you can blame the other side if you cause any sort of international  **_hooplah_ ** .”

Terri had agreed with him, but argued that such a public place presented less of a risk than trying to sneak her away to an isolated area.

The phone call had taken nearly an hour to finish.

As noon neared, Anna left for the meeting place, face hidden in the shade of her hat, and then altered beneath the effects of some well-placed, supremely cheap, conture.

The L'horloge Fleurie, their meeting place, was a feat of the ‘50s. It was a great, giant clock, the face of it made of blooming flowers, while the hands twirled about it in shiny white, powered by an atomic clock.

Anna took a seat at one of the benches, opening up a book she’d managed to snitch from a tourist’s purse on her way over. She hated having to take things, but she needed a cover, and the woman was obviously having more fun with her new husband than the story. It was some sort of cheesy spy novel - she laughed at the irony - and she managed to read it just enough to feign genuine enrapturement as she sat there and observed the crowds around her.

A family from India enjoyed the view of the water to her right, a couple visiting from elsewhere in Switzerland sat at a picnic beneath a tree on her left, and before her were rows and rows of shops - the windows closed and empty of anyone’s interference.

A sigh of cautious relief, and she was back to waiting.

Lex was not relieved, however, and was tapping his foot the entire drive to the meeting place. Agents in the area were on standby, the area sweeped for bombs or other dangers before the sun had even shown its face, but there was still that undercurrent of fear and caution that made him intensely nervous; twitchy. Sure, he’d gone on missions before, but they had usually delegated him to the finding of information and staying behind, not... this. This time he’d be in the line of fire, whether there was literal fire or gunfire, and they had the responsibility to pick up Anna herself and get her out of the country safely.

He sipped more at his mug of tea as Stiles lead them through traffic, attempting to just stay focused.

But then they arrived, and Stiles pulled up to a parking spot just outside of one of the shops to watch and wait for the giant floral clock to strike noon. Anna saw the van pull up, but no one exit it, and made sure to keep an even closer eye on them, as well as eye her exit routes.

When noon struck, the trio piled out of the car, tracking bracelets attached in case they got split up, and earpieces in and on. Stiles turned to them to do a check, turning on the piece and hissing.

“Don’t rush in, and don’t do anything stupid.”

“Got it.” Terri’s checked out, and her voice came through clearly as well.

Lex grinned at them with bubbly excitement combined with caffeine-enhanced nervousness, “I promise not to rush, but I can’t promise for Terri on the stupidity front.”

He earned an eye-roll from the other two at that, but they moved on anyways - at least his earpiece checked out.

As they made their way over, crossing the street at a jog and then searching for the right bench and the right straw hat, they took in their surroundings just as Anna had. Family leaving on the left, watching the water as they went, a redheaded couple finishing lunch to the right, and behind them, in the shops, there was only a single window open to the waterfront.

“Lex?!”

Lex whipped his head around to face the voice, and by the bench near the shade of the trees, next to the L'horloge Fleurie, stood the most beautiful sight he’d seen in all the months of trying to prove her innocent, and then the recent weeks spent attempting to find her - hoping with all he had that maybe, just  _ maybe _ she’d be alive.

And there she was, looking just as stunning as she had on the one date night they’d had together. The wind off the water had picked up, and she held her floppy straw hat to her head, grinning as bright as the sun under the shade of it and her hair shining the color of pale gold. Her pale blue sundress swirled around her knees as she walked towards the trio.

“Anna!”

Then they ran for each other.

Anna was shocked he was here - let alone that he was just as excited to see her as she was to see him - and she couldn’t help running for him. Lex swept her into a hug and held her close, and when they pulled back she couldn’t see anything but joy in his whiskey-gold eyes, couldn’t see anything but the smile on his face. They were going home, she was  _ safe _ .

Lex barely processed the voices on the other end of his earpiece until Stiles was screaming at him and ducking behind a tree.

“ **_Sniper in the window, Lex!_ ** ”

He instantly stiffened and Anna pulled back, finally seeing the tourists and locals scattering and hearing their screams. Lex grabbed her arm and ran with her alongside the park, moving into the trees that bordered the lakefront.

“ _ Shit. _ ” Lex hissed as they found some cover. “Sorry, so sorry.  **_Shit_ ** , there’s a sniper in the window.”

Anna looked for a second before ducking back again as a bullet whizzed by her.

“We can make it still. A.B and Terri are fine,” She nodded towards the pair as they attempted to get a shot at the hitman yards away from them. “We just need to get out of here. You drove, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s under the window.”

_ Third level, fourth window from the corner, yeah, there would be no getting to that _ .

A quick glance though, and Anna saw the sniper rifle pulling back into the window for a reload. Terri and Stiles returned fire again, and just then, she saw someone flee their car - some sort of Mini - with the machine left still running - in the middle of the road. The rest of incoming traffic doing the same as soon as they’d heard gunshots, it was a miracle.

Anna beamed before she motioned for Lex to follow her as she slipped over to the car’s driver-side. Lex was just about to slide into the seat next to her when he felt himself being slammed back by the shoulder, and hissed as something pierced into his arm. Instinctively he grabbed it out and fell into his seat. Anna clipped in and put the car in drive before she noticed the hacker hissing and groaning in pain.

Then she saw what was in his hand. The sniper wasn’t shooting bullets, they were large darts, full of some sort of tranquilizer - and the one Lex had been hit with was half empty.

“ _ Shit. _ ”

But there was no time; no time to check on him or bind his wound, only time to forcibly clip him in and speed off before the sniper could shatter her window and hit her with a dart too. Anna floored it and the car swerved for a secord before gaining traction and blasting off down the road.

The couple from the picnic hopped into a dark SUV behind them and followed, along with a slowly increasing number of cars formerly parked along the street.

Anna took a sharp right at the first corner and Lex slumped right with the inertia. Whatever drug had been in there had left him a giggly, slurry mess.

“I love car chases!” He shouted to her over the noise of the engine, his face split in a wide smile that wasn’t really his.

“Duck, Lex!” She shoved his head down and took a right again as real bullets started to hit the car. Another left and they’d shaken off one of the SUVs. 

“There’ss no duck down here, Anna. Why’d ya say duck?” Lex sounded so confused as he sat there, looking around the floor for the waterfowl mentioned.

“I meant duck your head, Lex, sit back up.”

He did as asked as she took another right, making a u-turn and speeding down another street. People leapt out of the way, and cars beached themselves on the sidewalk to avoid being hit.

Another bullet hit the back window and she couldn’t hold back a scream as the glass shattered. Lex didn’t move from his slumped place on her shoulder and Anna panicked, pinching his arm and glancing when she could for any signs of him being hit.

“Lex? Lex?!” She shook him before brushing past a bus, watching in the rearview as the bigger vehicle cut off that part of their pursuing party. Lex lazily pushed her hand away and she felt her heart lurch with the shock. His drugged self pulled itself back up.

Something rammed into the side of the car, making her serve. Another SUV was sidled up next to them, the redhead from the park aiming a pistol right at Anna with a Cheshire grin splitting her face.

“ _ Die, pig! _ ”

Anna screeched on the brakes and swerved into the only opening she saw, the entrance to a mall-

-down stairs.

Anna tasted copper as she bit her tongue with all the jostling as she slammed the horn and rushed people out of the way. People leapt into shops and she lost her right-side mirror to the wall halfway-down. Lex thought it was the most entertaining thing however, and was laughing the whole while.

“‘S like the ‘tal’an Job!”

But seconds later she was blinded again by sunlight and she made a painfully sharp left - she also heard Lex’s head  _ ‘thunk’  _ against the window when she did.

“Are you mad at me-e-e-e?” He slurred, looking almost tearful - damn, had those drugs had gotten to him…

“Why would I be mad, Lex? You guys came to find me!” She tried to focus, and keep him calm.

“‘Cause we d’n’t find you fast. ‘N now we’re gettin’ chased and you’re drivin’ nuts.”

She couldn’t help a laugh. “Nothing you guys could really do in the time-frame I gave you, now duck down again!”

Another sharp turn, this time a right onto a wrong-way street. People dashed to escape the speeding caravan. More bullets flew as one of the SUVs caught up with them.

But she had a Mini, a tiny little car meant for fast driving and the hardest of turns, and that SUV - she knew - was no match in maneuverability. So, when the almost-alley spat them out into another street, she gunned it for the barriers into the Place de la Petite-Fusterie, a little plaza between buildings… with trees in plots right in front of her.

Sharp turn to the right again, heart pounding away in her ears, both she and Lex screaming like pterodactyls as the car tipped, landed, and sped out of the way in a donut to face the scene that unfolded after them.

The SUV was too top-heavy; too slow to correct, and by the time the driver managed to turn it enough, the dark box was already toppling over and rolling into the trees of the plaza. They watched as it sat there, oddly still. And then -

“BOOM.”

The SUV burst into flames, glass flying everywhere and the explosion making Anna and Lex’s ears ring.

Anna looked to Lex, making sure he was strapped in and still somewhat awake before she drove off again, slamming her foot to the gas pedal and racing away. They ran past red lights, Lex slowly fading into slumber as cars crashed behind them and busses screeched their brakes.

But then she turned onto another side street and had to hit the brakes almost instantly. The redhead and another car were hiding just ahead, blocking her way.

She whipped into reverse and felt herself growing steely calm - a sure sign that they were doomed.

There was a loud screech behind her as a van pulled to a stop at the road and blocked off her only other exit.

_ Fuck _ .

Anna snarled and slapped the steering wheel, heart pounding harder than she’d ever felt it beat.

They were dead. She hoped they wouldn’t be, that they’d be blessed enough to just be beaten bloody but taken alive. There were no cameras, no windows facing the alley - But as soon as she saw the rounded figure hopping out after the  _ Byki  _ soldiers, she knew those hopes of getting out in anything other than body bags were pretty much dashed. There was no running without leaving Lex behind; abandoning him to their whims and a likely death, and even then, she was surrounded and pinned in.

She was a fox stuck in her den - hunters arriving to make sure her pelt was all that was left of her.

_ Dyadya Vladimir _ , strode out into the alleyway, watching from afar as his grunts pried open the doors and dragged the pair out of the car. Anna only struggled a little, to make sure that they knew she wasn’t going to bow to them again like a dog to its master, she’d die as her own self. Lex, however, was comatose, the tranquilizer agent having done its work and sent him into a deep, undisturbed sleep.  _ Byki  _ held both of them on their knees in front of the man given the title of  _ Spasitel _ \- the Savior. Anna was ready to snap at him, say something, maybe rage-cry for once, but then suddenly someone was yelling behind the giant of a man and nearly everyone leaned or turned to see.

Vasily hopped out of the van after punching his handler one last time, the lumbering form of Daniil following him out while nursing a clawed cheek and a sour face.

The Prince muttered something before running his hands through his wild and greasy hair, blue eyes crazed and empty of any empathy for the prisoners on their knees before his uncle.

At least he was smart enough to stay behind the statue of a man.

The redhead woman holding her, slapped Anna’s hat off all the way and yanked on her hair, making Anna screech in pain.

Vladimir clicked his tongue condescendingly.

“ _ Anna, darling, what did I tell you when we last met? I warned you of what would happen if you double-crossed me, didn’t I? _ ” His smile was disturbingly genuine, almost fatherly towards her, and his sea-blue eyes were dark and beady behind his large brow. But even as he smiled, he held his hand out to Daniil as the brute shuffled to stand on his right.

He hesitated, but gave him the gun. Vladimir noticed the pause and sighed at him.

“ _ I know you got attached to the girl, Daniil, but there’s nothing to be done now, she knew what she was getting into, messing with us _ .” His smile became more snide before he checked the magazine and clicked it back into place. He cocked the gun and lowered it to aim right at her defiant face.

“ _ Anna, for your work against restoring your mother country, collusion with a foreign power to work against your mother country, all among other various charges that I’m too bored to repeat: I sentence you to death… _ ”

At that, everyone expected the inevitable to happen.

However, no one expected his nephew to step in front of the  **_live gun_ ** .

Vladimir growled audibly at the madman, voice terse at the  _ child _ who dared try and humiliate him. “ _ Vasily… What are you doing?.. _ .”

The man looked wild. His hair was a greasy mess, and his usually impeccable suit had devolved to a rumbled shirt and slacks. The only sign of his rank being the gold chains about his neck and the giant rings weighing down his hands. His voice was wobbling, shaking, like he was on the verge of actually throwing a temper tantrum.

_ “I found her! I’m the one who told you all those years ago to just kill her! I told you we should’ve killed her as soon as she was caught, but you got all  _ **_soft_ ** _ about her - wanted her brought back so you could use her somewhere else-” _ He got in his uncle’s face, like an idiot. “ _ And I think, you should pay me back for that! _ ”

Vladimir lowered the gun to his side, Daniil saw him motioning to the others of the escort. “ _ Is that so? And why do you think you’re so entitled to everything; to play executioner to the girl you  _ **_allowed to get away_ ** _? _ ”

“ _ Because I’m the prince of this damned organization, and a soft and weak leader such as you shouldn’t get the privilege to put her down _ !” The boy all but screamed in his uncle’s face, and everyone felt the tension become so thick it was choking.

Then Vladimir smiled, that disturbingly fatherly grin breaking across his face, and it felt like the tension just… dropped away. The “Savior” straightened his suit out and patted Vasily on the back before motioning again to the others. “ _ Alright then! You can take them out, but you need to get into the proper position _ .” The Prince didn’t even hesitate, instead he nearly shoved the larger man aside and pulled his own gun, cocking it and aiming with a manic grin at Anna’s shocked face.

_ “Goodnight, bitch.” _

_ “Vasily-” _

_ “What?!” _

_ “Wrong position.” _

His face contorted in confusion before hands were suddenly grabbing him and holding him in place, taking his pistol and forcing him to his knees hard enough to bruise his kneecaps.

“ _ Dyadya! What- What’s the meaning of this _ ?”

Cold metal rested against his sweating forehead, silencing him as the warm grin turned into a cold curled lip.

“ _ I may not be willing to execute someone with  _ **_vital information_ ** _ and  _ **_amazing infiltration skill_ ** _ , but I am  _ **_perfectly_ ** _ capable of putting down the idiot responsible for the near destruction of his own father’s movement due to his own ego _ .”

“ _ Dyady- _ ” His furious tears didn’t even get a chance to fall before his uncle had stepped back, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

The body was thrown back, before the  _ Byki _ soldiers let go and allowed it to slump to the concrete.

Anna was frozen, face blank with shock and terror, unable to even scream. She could only stare back up at  _ Spasitel _ as he wiped off his face with an embroidered handkerchief. He stared back at her, then turned to Daniil.

“ _ Load them in the van. We have a long drive _ .”

Anna went limp with relief, before there was a sharp pain against the back of her head and the lights went out.

She felt her body fill with dread as she felt herself being dragged along.

  
  



	10. Press 3 For Prison Break

Lex felt as if he’d been hit by a train.

His tailbone was sore - the pain even worse as he was sitting on harsh stone, he realized - and his face stung with cuts, bruises, and the biting cold.

He tried to move, but he felt something keeping his hands tight behind his back, and then holding them to the spot. He groaned and managed to pry his eyes open. He observed his clothes, finding that weren’t his own, not at all, and then looked around at the room.

This was not Geneva. Most definitely not.

In Geneva, there was a lake, and sun, sun _light_ , and the voices of tourists and locals mixing as the city went about the day.

Here… here he was in a dark, empty, makeshift cell, with steel bars separating it from a small office situation. Tall, thin, and glass-less windows were the only way to peek outside, however, there wasn’t much to look out to from where he was tied up. The sky was grey, a “Disney-movie-villain-incoming” kind of grey - the kind that choked out all light from the sun or moon and left the world so dreary you couldn’t help but feel like there’s not much hope left - and the noises outside were more militaristic when the wind wasn’t howling over them.

Lex was still waking up though, and his optimism about the strange, dangerous, situation remained.

But then his eyes roved the other wall, and caught on the curled-in form of Anna. He felt that optimism disappear as his heart raced. He waited for her to move, breathe, cry- _something_. A shuddering breath and he sighed quietly with relief.

“Anna? _Anna_?”

She shifted and groaned in pain, but didn’t face him or respond. Lex briefly had the thought to try to get to her by leaning far down and nudging her with his foot, but as soon as he braced himself and started to attempt his plan, the door into the office rattled before flying open.

A redheaded woman stepped in, her face exuding a sort of cruel elegance - like she could kill a man right on the red carpet and still be applauded for her choice of gown. However, she was dressed in old KGB combat uniform, fur-lined coat and shiny boots included. Uniform or not, though, he remembered her and glared.

She’d been in the park, picnicking, and then in one of his few lucid moments during the car chase, he’d seen her trying to run them into a stone building.

From behind her though, walked a statue of a man. He was old, and had the portly belly of his age, but he was so tall and held himself with such a kingly air that one could quickly forget any ideas of weakness within him. The man strode in, wearing full KGB uniform with an extra patch added below the one on his left arm - something about revolutions, though Lex didn’t get a good look - and sported a clean-shaven face, though his eyebrows were thick enough to make up for it.

The pair outside strode up to the bars to watch the pair within, and when the older man, eyes sunken, with deep bags beneath, saw that Lex was awake he did the oddest thing that Lex could really have thought of him doing.

The KGB soldier _smiled_.

He said something in Russian before opening the bar-door to the cell. The red-head left to retrieve something it seemed - though like hoped dearly that she was just leaving.

“Glad to see you awake, _Zayka_! You took that sleeping agent quite hard, didn’t you?”

Lex didn’t speak. The man clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“Now, now… Don’t be that way. Here, perhaps you’re afraid of me? Most are.” He seemed warm and kind as he rambled, but Lex felt every single red flag in his head waving in front of his eyes, just like with that _Vasily_ guy, and he resisted the instinct to relax. “My men call me _Spasitel,_ meaning ‘savior’. However, **you** can call me _Vladimir_.”

He leaned against the wall next to Anna, and Lex felt like fighting him when he noticed her flinching away.

“Where are we?” Lex continued to glare daggers at this “savior”.

He smiled even more at Lex, clapping in faux amazement. “The _Zayka_ speaks!” Vladimir pushed off the wall and leaned over the far smaller young man. “You are here, because of her.”

He pointed to Anna as she hid from them, and Lex felt a sick lurch in his chest. Did he do all of that work, that searching, for nothing?

“Don’t worry, little _Zayka,_ she did really like you.”

Lex swung his terrified and confused face up to meet that of Vladimir - the Russian just belly-laughed at the sight.

“Oh! I know you fancied her! She fancied you quite a lot as well, from what I could tell. Every letter back to me always had you in it, some sort of joke or little quote of yours always got stuck _right_ in her paperwork. One time she even requested a little dog for her cover. Said that ‘her coworker had one, so why not her? Americans like dogs!’” He laughed again.

Lex felt a inch of relief, but then the door swung open again on creaking hinges, and the redhead returned with a trolley, the top rattled with the sound of metal tools and Lex felt ice run down his spine as this “savior” moved over to Anna with that smile.

“Now, Anna, I’m sorry that I delayed this-” He heaved her up and out of her protective position, which allowed Lex to see the wounds and bruises on her for the first time; the makeup gone. She struggled and Lex was forced to watch from across the room as the giant man crouched to her level. “-but you see, Vasily’s little act in Switzerland caused too much of a commotion to explain before getting back here.” He tilted her head up with the crook of his finger.

She spat in his face and snarled.

Wiping away the spittle with a disgusted face, Vladimir sighed and stood. A swift kick in her side left Anna gasping and Lex shouting at him, though the man didn’t seem to pay any attention to the scrawny little hacker. He picked her back up by the collar of her new, far-too-big, shirt and set her down again, yanking on one of the ties behind her to tighten their hold on her hands. She hissed in pain and Lex felt his heart dropping as the warm smile turned into one of tightly restrained fury.

“Too much like your parents, aren’t you.”

 

* * *

 

Anna froze at those words - the imperious man just laughed, the tone biting. Anna’s eyes were wide, but her head still turned away from him as she processed his words.

“Yes, Anna Sokolov - you daft little girl - I knew your parents. Knew them **very** well in fact.” He grabbed her chin again. “They were some of our _best_.”

She was shaking with the thoughts that coursed through her brain; the implications about the family she’d idolized and tried so hard to find again.

“And just like you, they turned on us, except their actions had far harsher consequences.” He pulled a photo from his breast-pocket and smiled cruelly at her as he showed it to her.

It was her father as she remembered him, but even younger, and in a KGB uniform next to an older man she assumed to be her now-captor. “Their work ended our great country’s work with communism, ended the greatness that was old Russia. Their work made us bow to the rotting West and tore down the wall.” He hissed in her ear and she leaned away as much as she was able, which wasn’t much. Vladimir kicked her again and she felt the wind get knocked right out of her.

“They joined the CIA and betrayed us. Your own father looked into my eyes and lied!” He’d gone from eerily calm to clearly raging, his fury bubbling over.

“Then what’s she got to do with it?!” Lex finally got the courage to pipe up, and Anna winced for him.

“Because - _Lex_ ,” she saw him tense at the fact that he knew his name, “I want revenge. And because it made it so much more _delicious_ to lie to _her_.”

“Lie about what? About letting me go free?!” Anna was blocking off the thoughts that attempted to crop up about what he meant. He couldn’t mean what she thought he did, it would mean…

“I lied about having your parents.” The redhead sniggered from the corner with her tray of tools, and Vladimir just gave her that curled-lip smile as he watched her realize what he meant.

Everything she’d done, everything she’d ruined, everything she’d let happen to her… was all for nothing.

Lex was screaming something at him - profanities and hatred she couldn’t manage to express on her own at the moment.

The tray rattled again, closer. The redhead put on her surgical mask, face shield reflecting the dreary clouds outside and hiding her face, except for one glinting, cruel, eye. She crouched down to her level as she readied some sort of gruesome tool and eyed her tongue.

“HEY.” Lex got his wits back about him as soon as he saw the woman getting too close to Anna with the tool, and he kicked out again at Vlad. “Don’t hurt her! Get away from her!”

Vlad didn’t even look down at him as he stomped, _hard_ , on the hacker’s leg. Lex yanked it back with a yowl. Both of the _Bespredel_ agents looked back to him, and Vlad let his face fall completely, no warmth or smile left, only cold, harsh, heartlessness.

“For every word from you, _Zayka,_ it’ll just get worse for her. So shut your trap or help her remember the information.”

Then he was leaving, waltzing right out the cell door, and closing it behind him. He looked so smug that Anna knew that when she got to him, she was going to take her time making sure he was dead.

But then he stopped, turning back to her dramatically like he’d forgotten to tell her something funny. He leaned against the cell bars and grinned at her. “But Anna, so you are aware, _we_ might not have your parents, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know who _does_.” Then he wiggled his stubby, wrinkled, fingers at her in farewell, before finally leaving the room and cell entirely.

The redheaded woman, her elegant face hidden behind her mask, then tilted her head patronizingly at her prisoner. “Now speak, you _suki_ songbird, or I’ll make sure your parents never hear your pretty little voice again.”

Anna kept her jaw tightly shut. Her eyes the color of burnished steel as she glared dangerously at her captor.

“Fine then.” The woman moved to force open her mouth, but didn’t expect what happened next in quick succession.

There was a crack, and she stumbled back with a yelp as Anna smashed the crown of her head into her face. Then, when she tried to stand, Anna jumped up and over her arms - she’d broken the link in the zipties that had kept her stuck there the minute Vlad left - and pirouetted. Her foot met the woman’s face so hard that it knocked her back onto the floor with a smack that had Lex wincing and shutting his eyes as closed as he could.

After a couple more precise hits, the woman was comatose. Anna quickly relieved herself of her last zipties, and then put the redhead in her place.

“Lex. Open your eyes and lean away from the wall.”

Lex was stunned as he did as asked. “What- How?” Then he saw the slice on her arm from one of the tools the other woman had held and his eyes went wide and worried. “Oh, shit. Are you alright? How do we get out of here?”

“We don’t.”

 

* * *

 

“ **_Excuse me_ **?” Lex was giving her a clear look of ‘what the hell are you talking about’ and rubbed his wrists once Anna freed them, trying to get the blood back in his hands.

Anna looked at him, her face broken in both senses of the word. Her nose was bent and she had a split lip, but her eyes were a stormy grey and empty, defeated and furious. “There’s no way we **_can_ ** survive escaping here, even if we take every gun possible. This place is **the** _Bespredel_ base, there's so many soldiers out there that we’re likely outnumbered five-hundred-to-one.” She stole the redhead’s pistol from her belt and checked how many bullets were left. “No one’s coming for us, not up here in the middle of Siberia. We either die trying to kill as many of them as we can - or we die alone, in this tower.”

“What?! I don’t want to just- just die, Anna! There has to be some way to contact HQ, or survive here a _little_ longer!”

Anna looked to him sadly, and was going to speak before the lights flickered.

Now, at any other point, in any other less desperate moment, the two might not have noticed, or just went on with their mission. But both of them wanted to live, and that meant noticing the little things.

Like out the flickering lights were steady, in a morse-code pattern.

And how it affected the _entire outpost_.

More lights across the base flicked on and off, spelling out a message in morse-code.

_Help coming._

“Ha! They **didn’t** take it off in time!” Lex cheered and watched the chaos outside with the Russian at his side. Anna stared at him in confusion. Lex lit up, and showed her his wrist.

Though its face was cracked. his watch-slash-tracker was still on his wrist. It was a new model, thin and sleek enough to appear unable to hold any sort of device inside, meaning they’d left it on

“Why didn’t you lead with that, Lex?” She laughed and slapped his arm, making him yelp. Instantly her annoyed look became apologetic as she yanked her hands back. A moment passed and they broke into laughter together; real, genuine, happy-to-be-alive laughter.

Lex hugged her close, wincing at his hurt leg, but ignoring it as he felt her hold him even closer.

“Thank you, Lex. For coming back; for believing me…”

Lex leaned down so that his forehead was resting against hers.

“Of course! Thank you for all the clues to help us… Socks.”

“Socks?” She leaned back to give him a judging raised eyebrow.

He shrugged and grinned, “Always wanted to give you a funny nickname, so: Sokolov… socks…”

He looked so proud of himself, even as she rolled her eyes.

Gunshots outside got them back into motion.

Anna handed him the gun and grabbed the keys, letting themselves out and into the office space. Anna searched through the cheap desk’s drawers for anything of use, cheering when she found her old switchblade and knife-pen.

When Lex recognized the pen he gave her a concerned face.

“No I didn’t bring it to work.”

Lex nodded and went back to searching the trunk on the other wall.

Soon enough they had the lone gun, some extra ammunition, and a variety of knives to pick from. As soon as they’d geared up, as much as prisoners could gear up - they opened the door and began down the stairs, leaning against the wall for cover, with Anna on point.

The first two guards were easy enough to take down - Lex shot one and Anna used her knife to take out the other - but they knew that the rest of the way out of the compound would be significantly harder. Both of them were terrified to leave, Anna for fear of a repeat of the car chase, and Lex since it was his first time really actually participating in such a shootout.

“We’ll try and make it to the helipad, that was to the far left of our windows up top, so now it’ll be straight out these doors after all those stairs.” Anna nodded at the doors.

“Got it.”

Then they slung their new guns over their shoulders, hid the bodies out of view (a harder job than first thought), and burst out into the roaring cold of the Siberian mountains.

They dove into the fire, racing out and towards the first cover they could find. The bushes hid them well enough and they scraped by onto an overturned table, taking down the guards that tried to follow. Soon enough they were sneaking away to the far edge of the village center, only three _Byki_ left behind to guard the way.

Lex took a few steadying breaths - this was driving his nerves up to the highest levels he’d ever experienced - and took out the two in front of him. His magazine was getting low, even the extra sets were starting to dwindle too far for them to get comfortable. Anna took care of the third guard as soon as he ran over, gun a-blazing. All it took was her tiny form using his own speed against him, and an easily silenced shout of alarm and he was no longer a problem.

But unfortunately, the incoming forces didn’t know that they were on the ground and moving through the compound, running until there were only a couple bullets left. At that point they resorted to using knives and hiding even more thoroughly.

Stray bullets struck cabins and wood splintered. Smoke bombs were tossed on both sides and both sides shot blind. Someone from the invading side threw in a real bomb and the blast sent stone shrapnel flying everywhere, accompanied by fire and ringing ears. Lex and Anna dove into one of the village cabins for safety and to figure out their next move. Could they run fast enough to reach the lift-off pad, to catch the helicopter circling the area before _Bespredel_ did, or would they just have to hide until the friendly forces found them?-

“ _What the hell?!_ ” Both heads turned to the faces they hadn’t seen before, and that only one understood. They both stood right back up and Anna drew her knife.

The two guards aimed their guns, a pair of AN-94’s, at them before being interrupted by a figure bursting in after the prisoners. Both Anna and Lex jumped away, torn between who to watch closer.

Daniil took in the scene, closed the door behind him, and sighed. The chaos of the shootout just outside the door was only barely drowned out, but it was enough for the _Byki_ to get a brief word in.

“ _Sir. It’s the_ _Spasitel’s prisoners, should we shoot them or-?”_

 _“No.”_ Daniil looked almost… remorsefully at his men.

He had a sad smile, with a glint in his eye and a tightness to his hands that didn’t seem safe. Daniil then checked his pistol, before returning his eyes to the very confused guards.

_“Apologies, soldiers.”_

Two loud ‘BANG’s and then the two bodies fell unsubtly to the floor.

Anna was shocked. Sure, Daniil had been helpful, kind, maybe a little protective, but a downright traitor? She stared up at him in confusion. Lex, on the other hand, was frozen - lacking any knowledge of Russian, he’d just seen this giant man kill two men in possible cold blood.

“I’ll cover your way out to the helicopter. There’s only a little more until you can get past the fencing.”

Anna waved her hands to stop him, “What- What are you up to, Daniil? Why are you helping me? This could get you killed!”

Daniil just smiled, and then handed her a photograph. It was an old polaroid that had been folded in the same place at least a million times. Anna felt a sense of dread when she saw her father again, but…

He wasn’t alone.

It was her whole family: the parents she was desperately searching for, the grandparents she could barely manage to remember, and then there was one person she didn’t recognize.

“I left for the army shortly after you were born. My brother never failed to keep me updated about you, though. He sent me every picture he could, and every tape of your firsts.”

Anna was floored, but he didn’t give her much time to process before he was ushering them to the door.

“I vowed to find your parents, and then to protect you as well. But now I am close to the _Spasitel,_ and I need to keep my position with him.”

He shoved the door open.

“I’ll cover you, just make sure to shoot me somewhere non-lethal once you’re in the clear.”

Lex cautiously moved where he was told. “So… You’re _not_ going to shoot us in the back?”

Daniil noticed him and shook his head. “No, young man. I’m here to help only. Now run!” He shoved them unceremoniously out the door and shot at the ground near their feet as soon as they took off. “ _These pigs are mine_ !” He declared to the remaining _Byki_.

Lex took Anna’s hand as they ran, hearts pounding in sync and both grinning with the idea of freedom.

They were almost through the gates to the helipad, a large military helicopter circling and working to land soon, when there was another voice added over Daniil’s.

“Stop them, stop them you **_idiots_ **!”

There was a loud series of gunshots from behind them, making the pair duck, and then Anna felt her arm seize and slump out of her control, and she watched in confusion as her hand dropped her knife into the grey-ish dirt of the path.

“Lex? Lex what happened to my arm?” She couldn’t see, only feel a strange ache start to burn from the shoulder joint down to her hand.

Lex pushed her in front of him to see, and immediately regretted the choice. He looked back at the shooter, only to see the _Spasitel_ himself chasing after them. But he was old, and they were still young. They had a chance.

“You got shot, aim for the storage shed on the helipad and we can duck for cover!”

Lex shoved her through the gate first before turning back to face the man who’d saved their lives. They shared a look and Lex aimed his pistol.

“BANG.”

The last bullet from his stolen gun hit Daniil right in the thigh, dropping him like a tree. The _Spasitel_ attempted to blow past his wounded right-hand-man, but as soon as he’d taken the shot, Lex had slammed the chain-link gate closed, locked it with a stolen zip tie or two, and then dove behind the shed with Anna. The old man was out of bullets by the time he managed to huff it to the barrier, and was left howling with rage at the fence when he realized it.

Instantly upon seeing Anna again, Lex tore off some of his ratty “borrowed” shirt and pressed it to the source of the bleeding.

“You still with me, Socks?”

“Yeah… Yeah. I’m here.”

“Good. Stay with me, okay? Talk to me.”

His hands were shaking, but he kept the slowly reddening cloth to her shoulder, the bullet having been lodged in there rather than being spat out the other side.

“Can I ask questions? I mean, Vlad back there kinda spilled everything about _me_ . And you’re y’know, notoriously tight-lipped about _you_.”

“No, I’m the most open person in the CIA, I’m not sure how they keep me on as an employee with how open I am!” He was joking and she knew it, they both tried to laugh, but it was too tense a situation to laugh hard enough at.

“You don’t have to, you know. Just tell me something about Roxy or whatever.”

Lex winced at himself and sighed. He was very protective of his private life and family, but if he wanted to really date her, it’d have to come out soon enough - so why not right after she’d been shot?

“No, no. Ask me a question, any question, and I’ll try and answer.”

She smiled at him, slowly slumping over to lean on him, the blood loss exhausting her. “Alright then, Lex. What’s your real name? Since you know mine. And is it really just Lex? I heard the Deputy Director doesn't even know!”

The helicopter was nearing, circling around them and forcing Lex to start yelling to be heard. “Leonard Evans Xavier! I always hated how stuck-up it sounded to me so I just went with the acronym!”

She actually laughed at that, before her head slumped forward and she only barely brought herself back up. “Lovely to finally get to know you then, Mister Xavier! No wonder you like comic books!”

Then she quieted, visibly trying to stay awake even as the helicopter began to land.

Lex clutched Anna close, just as she tried to do the same to him with her working arm, both of them shielding their faces from the fierce wind thrown at them by the helo. He felt her starting to slip away from him, and kissed her forehead.

“It’s going to be okay, just stay awake a little longer, alright?!”

She mumbled something against his jacket, hissing in pain as he tried to adjust her so her arm was higher than her heart - some tidbit from an old class that he was amazed he remembered right then.

But then the helo landed perfectly in the circle of the helipad, and the soldiers on board scared off both Vladimir and Daniil with a few warning shots their way. That meant that they were free, free to go, free to escape, and Lex helped Anna onto stumbling feet and lead her to the others. Lex was shocked when he saw his friends on the waiting transport. The other pair just smiled and helped get Anna on the gurney inside, then Lex into the nearby seat, and put headphones on both of them. The soldiers slammed the doors closed behind them.

“Couldn’t leave you guys unattended, now could we?”

Neither of the rescued couple could respond with anything by relieved smiles and exhausted laughter.

The helicopter picked up with a small lurch, and then they were off, flying far above the stolen village and their former captors. As soon as it was announced, Lex and Anna held hands as tightly as they could, to reassure themselves it was real. That it was going to be okay.

They were going home.

They were safe.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really loved getting to write this, and poured a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and time into it so it would be the best I could make it! If you really like it, and are interested in a sequel, or some one-shots for more about Lex and Anna, let me know!


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